WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 


THE    LIFE  AND   WORK 

OF 

5^illtam  ^rpor  iletc|)toorti) 

STUDENT  AND  MINISTER  OF 
PUBLIC  BENEVOLENCE 

BY 

J.  N.  LARNED 

Author  of  '■'■A  Study  of  Greatness  in  Men  "  ,•    "  Books,    Culture^ 

and  Character  "  ,•    "  Se-venty  Centuries  of  the  Life 

of  Mankind.''    Editor  of  "  History 

for  Ready  Reference,  etc.'' 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

^6e  lUiber^ibe  J^xt^^  €axnbi\iiQt 

1912 


COPYRIGHT,    I912,    BY    HENRY    R.    ROWLAND,   ADMINISTRATOR 


ALL   RIGHTS   RESERVED 


Published  April  iqi2 


ad 


CONTENTS 

I.  Ancestry.  —  Early  Years.  —  Business 

Life i 

c         II.  Glen  Iris 42 

n      III.  Preserving  the  Memorials  of  Genesee 

Valley  History 72 

IV.  Child-saving  Work:  Prevenient   .     .   106 

g         V.  Studies    of    Public    Philanthropy   in 

Europe 164 


LlJ 


VI.  Child-saving  Work:    Reformative     .  210 

VII.  Work  for  the  Insane 263 

VIII.  Work  for  the  Epileptic 327 

>•      IX.  The  Gift  of   Letchw^orth   Park  to 

jjj  the  State  of  New  York   ....  364 

^        X.  Letchw^orth    Village.  —  Last  Years  405 
e 

c       XI.  The  Man 425 

Appendix:  List  of  Writings     .     .     .  447 
Index 461 


l<^^J^\J^2.'kJ 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

William  Pryor  Letchworth  at  the  age  of 
SEVENTY.    Photogravure Frontispiece 

JosiAH  Letchworth,  Sr.,  Father  of  William 
Pryor  Letchworth 6 

The  parental  home  at  Sherwood,  N.  Y.     .  i8 

William  Pryor  Letchworth  as  a  young  man  26 

Glen  Iris:  View  from  "Inspiration  Point"  42 

The  Home  at  Glen  Iris 58 

The  Old  Caneadea  Council  House     ...  76 

Statue  of  Mary  Jemison 98 

William  Pryor  Letchworth  while  Presi- 
dent of  the  New  York  State  Board  of 
Charities 130 

The  Middle  Fall,  Glen  Iris 164 

The  Lawn,  Glen  Iris 210 

"  Rock-Bound  Battlements" 264 

Deh-ga-ya-sah 328 


viii  ILLUSTRATIONS 

View  from    Prospect    Farm,    Letchworth 
Park 368 

Map  of'  Letchworth  Park 390 

The  Lower  Fall  of  the   Genesee,  Letch- 
worth Park 406 


WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 


THE  LIFE  AND  WORK  OF 

William  Pryor  Letchworth 

CHAPTER    I 

ANCESTRY EARLY  YEARS BUSINESS  LIFE 

The  life  to  be  set  forth  in  this  book  was  one 
of  singular  beauty  in  its  personal  exhibition,  of 
noble  motive  and  purpose  in  all  its  activities, 
of  golden  success  in  its  whole  achievement.  It 
was  the  life  of  a  man  who  spent  a  moderate  part 
of  it  in  pursuits  of  personal  business,  until  they 
had  given  him  the  freedom  and  the  means 
for  effective  service  to  his  fellow  men,  rendered 
through  a  long  remainder  of  laborious  years, 
and  who  exercised  in  that  service  a  rare  capacity 
for  what  may  be  described  as  the  statesmanship 
of  philanthropy,  which  labors  for  the  reform- 
ation of  evil-working  conditions  in  the  world. 
The  instructiveness  of  his  labors  and  the  inspir- 
ation of  his  example  seem  equally  to  have  given 
an  importance  to  his  life  which  death  did  not 
end,  and  which  claims  an  effort  of  biography  to 


2      WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

keep  its  influence  from  being  lost.  If  the  story 
is  not  found  to  have  an  interest  of  no  common 
degree  it  will  be  because  it  is  not  rightly  told. 

In  devoting  the  greater  part  of  his  mature 
life  to  benevolent  work  (performed  as  an  un- 
paid official  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
wholly  at  his  own  cost),  Mr.  Letchworth  was 
obedient,  it  is  plain,  to  hereditary  promptings, 
from  an  ancestry  which  had  been  spiritually  cul- 
tured for  two  centuries  by  the  humane  Christ- 
ianity of  the  Society  of  Friends.  The  family  was 
of  ancient  English  stock, —  so  ancient  that  its 
origin,  if  the  tracing  were  possible,  would  most 
likely  be  found  in  Saxon  times.  The  name, 
Letchworth,  is  that  of  a  parish  and  village  in 
the  hundred  of  Broadwater,  county  of  Hertford, 
England,  two  miles  from  the  town  of  Hitchin 
and  northwestward  from  London  about  thirty- 
three  miles.  It  seems  obviously  a  Saxon  name, 
and  whether  the  parish  received  it  from  the 
family  or  the  family  from  the  parish  is  an  unde- 
termined question  which  calls  for  no  discussion 
here. 

Our  present  interest  in  this  genealogy  '  goes 

*  A  compilation  in  manuscript  of  the  family  history,  by  Mr. 
Henry  R.  Hovvland,  is  the  main  source  of  the  information 
given  here. 


ANCESTRY  3 

back  to  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, soon  after  George  Fox  began  the  preach- 
ing in  England  which  inspired  the  English 
formation  of  the  Society  of  Friends.  Quaker 
At  that  time  one  Robert  Letch-  ^^^^^  ^^ 
worth,  living  in  the  village  of  Chesterton,  near 
Cambridge,  and  about  twenty-five  miles  from 
Letchworth  village,  is  found  to  have  joined  the 
religious  followers  of  George  Fox,  and  to  have 
borne  his  share  of  the  penalties  of  imprisonment 
and  fine  which  the  Friends  or  Quakers  of  that 
generation  had  to  suffer,  for  refusing  to  pay 
tithes  to  the  established  church,  or  to  attend  its 
services,  or  to  make  oath  in  courts  of  law.  This 
Robert  Letchworth  is  believed  to  have  been  the 
grandfather  of  another  Robert,  born  late  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  from  whom  the  descent  of 
all  who  bear  the  name  in  America  is  authentic- 
ally traced. 

The  last-named  Robert  Letchworth,  a  busi- 
ness man  of  London,  served  also  in  the  minis- 
try of  the  Friends  for  many  years,  and  his  third 
son,  Thomas,  became  a  very  notable  preacher 
of  the  sect.  "  Twelve  Discourses,"  by  Thomas 
Letchworth,  "  delivered  chiefiy  at  the  meeting- 
house of  the  people  called  Quakers,  in  the  Park, 
Southwark,"  were  published  in  London  in  1787, 


4     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

and  republished  at  Salem,  New  Jersey,  in  1794. 
Evidence  that  the  preacher  was  a  man  of  fine 
mind  and  culture  is  abundant  in  these  discourses ; 
and  the  same  testimony  is  borne  in  an  admirably 
written  "Life  and  Character  of  Thomas  Letch- 
worth,"  by  William  Matthews,  which  was  pub- 
lished at  Bath  and  London  in  1786.  The  re- 
putation of  Thomas  Letchworth  in  America,  as 
well  as  in  England,  was  such  as  to  induce  Ben- 
jamin Franklin  to  republish,  at  Philadelphia,  a 
small  volume  of  blank  verse  from  his  pen,  con- 
taining two  pieces,  entitled,  respectively,  "  A 
Morning's  Meditation,  or  a  Descant  on  the 
Times,"  and  "  Miscellaneous  Reflections,  or  an 
Evening's  Meditation,  addressed  to  the  Youth." 
From  this  Thomas  Letchworth  the  families  who 
bear  the  name  in  England  derive  their  descent. 
On  our  western  continent  the  family  name 
was  planted  by  John  Letchworth,  the  second 
American  son  of  Robert,  who  emigrated  to 
ancestry  America  in  1766.  Leaving  his  wife 
and  four  children  in  England,  he  came  alone,  to 
test  the  conditions  of  life  at  Philadelphia  before 
venturing  to  bring  his  family  thither.  In  1768 
he  had  established  himself  in  business  as  a 
builder  so  satisfactorily  that  wife  and  children 
were  called  to  join  him  in  the  new  home.    The 


ANCESTRY  5 

reunion  was  unhappily  brief;  for  the  father,  be- 
ing summoned  back  to  England  on  some  errand 
of  business,  in  1772,  fell  sick  while  there  and 
■died.  His  widow,  thus  sorely  bereft,  remained 
at  Philadelphia  and  reared  her  children,  two 
sons  and  two  daughters,  under  circumstances 
of  much  hardship,  in  the  troubled  years  before 
and  during  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  elder 
son,  John,  grew  to  be  a  man  of  high  standing 
and  influence,  prominent  in  all  benevolent  and 
religious  work,  signalized  especially  in  heroic 
labors  at  Philadelphia  during  the  awful  visit- 
ation of  yellow  fever  in  1793,  for  which,  like 
Stephen  Girard,  he  received  a  formal  testimonial 
from  the  Governor  of  the  State.  As  a  preacher, 
among  the  Friends,  he  travelled  far  westward, 
into  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  when  travel  in 
those  regions  was  full  of  hardship  and  peril. 
Naturally,  he  was  one  of  the  Quakers  who  or- 
ganized the  first  antislavery  society  in  the  United 
States. 

The  younger  son  of  this  transplanted  family, 
"William  Letchworth,  married  and  spent  his  life 
in   Philadelphia,  rearing  a  family  of    r^gj^ 
eight  children,  the  eldest  of  whom,    Letchworth, 
named    Josiah,   born    in    1791,   be-    ^^' 
came  the  father  of  the  subject  of  this  biogra- 


6     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

phy.  Josiah  Letchworth,  married  in  1815  to 
Miss  Ann  Hance,  began  his  wedded  life  at  Bur- 
lington, New  Jersey,  but  removed  his  young 
family  thence,  in  18 19,  to  Brownville,  on  Black 
River,  near  Watertown,  in  northern  New  York. 
A  second  change  of  residence  took  them  to  Mo- 
ravia, in  Cayuga  County,  and  a  third  to  Sher- 
wood, within  thirteen  miles  of  Auburn,  where 
they  dwelt  most  happily  for  twenty  years.  Most 
of  the  sons  and  daughters  had  then  been  called 
away  from  the  parental  home,  and  the  father 
and  mother  were  drawn  by  many  attractions  to 
Auburn,  in  1852,  for  the  spending  of  their  last 
years. 

The  residence  of  Josiah  Letchworth  in  Au- 
burn was  no  longer  than  five  years ;  but  it  suf- 
ficed to  make  him  a  citizen  of  note.  He  had  not 
come  to  the  city  as  a  stranger,  his  life  at  Sher- 
wood having  brought  him  into  much  intercourse 
with  the  city ;  but  nothing  in  that  intercourse 
could  account  for  the  quickness  with  which  he 
became  affectionately  known  and  esteemed  by 
the  public  at  large.  He  entered  actively  into 
social  service  work,  along  many  lines;  interested 
himself  greatly  in  the  schools;  spoke  much  and 
earnestly  for  temperance  and  against  slavery,  and 
appears  to  have  caused  the  fine  spirit  of  benevo- 


JOSIAH   LETCHWORTH,  SR., 
Father  of  William  Pryor  Letchworth 


ANCESTRY  7 

lence  and  justice  in  true  Quakerism  to  be  felt  in 
the  city  as  a  potent  force.  When  he  died,  in  the 
spring  of  1857,  there  was  a  profound  sense  of 
public  loss  in  Auburn,  which  Senator  Seward 
gave  voice  to  some  months  later,  on  returning 
from  Washington  to  his  home.  In  opening  an 
address  to  his  fellow  townsmen  he  referred  to 
some  words  of  impatience  and  rebuke  that  he 
had  used  on  a  former  occasion,  and  said  :  — 

When  I  descended  from  the  platform  a  fellow  citi- 
zen, venerable  in  years  and  beloved  by  us  all,  gently 
asked  me  whether  I  was  not  becoming  senator 
disheartened  and  despondent.  He  added  Seward's 
that  there  was  no  reason  for  dejection,  and  tribute 
what  I  had  seen  was  but  the  caprice  of  the  day.  "  Go 
on  and  do  your  duty,  and  we,  your  neighbors,  will  come 
around  you  again  right  soon  and  sustain  you  through- 
out." Do  you  ask  who  it  was  that  administered  that 
just  though  mild  rebuke  ?  Who  else  could  it  be  but 
Josiah  Letchworth,  a  man  whose  patience  was  equal 
to  his  enthusiastic  zeal  in  every  good  cause,  and  to 
his  benevolence  in  every  good  work  ?  His  prediction 
is  fulfilled,  and  I  am  here  to  speak  with  more  boldness 
and  confidence  than  ever  before.  But  my  faithful  mon- 
itor no  longer  has  a  place  in  our  assemblies.  Josiah 
Letchworth,  the  founder  of  our  charities,  the  defender 
of  truth  and  justice,  is  no  more.  You  deplore  his  loss 
as  I  do ;  for  he  was  not  more  my  friend  than  a  public 


8     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

benefactor.  I  do  injustice,  however,  equally  to  my 
own  faith  and  to  that  which  was  the  inspiration  of  his 
life,  when  I  say  that  I  miss  his  benevolent  smile  and 
the  cordial  pressure  of  his  hand  to-night.  No,  —  he  yet 
lives,  and  his  shade  is  not  far  from  us  whenever  we 
assemble  in  places  where  he  was  once  familiar,  to  carry 
on  a  good  work  in  which  he  was  accustomed  to  labor. 

A  more  significant  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
Josiah  Letchworth  was  paid  by  children  of  the 
schools,  who  raised  a  fund  with  which  to  procure 
the  engraving  of  his  portrait  on  steel  by  Mr. 
Buttre,  a  noted  artist  of  the  day.  Prints  from  this 
excellent  engraving  went  into  many  Auburn 
homes,  and  the  portrait  shown  here  is  from  one 
such  print. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  father  who 
won  the  hearts  of  a  community  was  loved  and 
revered  in  his  own  household;  and  this  was 
equally  true  of  the  mother,  —  a  strong  and  ad- 
mirable character,  who  ruled  her  children  with 
a  firmness  that  was  ever  kind  and  wise.  Between 
the  brothers  and  sisters,  too,  the  ties  of  affection 
were  more  than  common  in  strength  and  warmth. 
From  an  abundance  of  family  correspondence, 
confided  to  the  writer  of  this  memoir,  he  receives 
no  other  impression  so  clear  as  that  of  the  at- 
mosphere of  love,  of  piety  in  the  large  sense. 


ANCESTRY  9 

of  all  simple  Tightness  of  feeling,  in  which  the 
young  were  reared,  and  the  influence  of  which 
they  carried  with  them  from  the  parental  home. 

Inasmuch  as  the  brothers  and  sisters  of  Will- 
iam Pryor  Letchworth  held  close  relations  to 
him  always  and  came  into  his  life  in  Brothers 
many  ways,  it  is  needful  to  intro-  and  sisters 
duce  themat  the  beginning.  He  was  one  of  eight 
children,  —  four  daughters  and  four  sons.  The 
eldest  was  a  daughter,  Mary  Ann,  who  became 
Mrs.  Crozer,  and  who,  when  widowed,  joined 
her  life  with  that  of  her  bachelor  brother,  Will- 
iam, presiding  over  his  household  and  giving 
him,  by  her  companionship,  some  of  the  hap- 
piest of  his  years.  Another  daughter,  Eliza 
(Mrs.  Hoxie),  came  second  in  the  family.  Then 
followed  three  sons,  Edward  Hance,  William 
Pryor,  and  George  Jediah,  in  that  order  of  suc- 
cession ;  after  whom  two  daughters  were  born, 
namely,  Hannah,  who  became  the  wife  of  Will- 
iam Howland,  and  Charlotte,  who  married 
Byron  C.  Smith.  The  youngest  of  the  family 
received  his  father's  name,  Josiah. 

William,  as  will  be  seen,  was  the  fourth  child 
and  the  second  son.   He  was  born  Earliest re- 
on  the  26th  of  May,  1823,  while  the  collections 
family  was  still  at  Brownville ;  and  probably  it 


lo     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

was  the  home  in  that  town  which  left  a  curiously- 
fanciful  remembrance  in  his  mind,  so  amusing  to 
him  that  he  gave  on  one  occasion  this  account  of 
it:  "  The  earliest  recollections  of  my  childhood 
are  of  a  low  stone  house  standing  back  from 
the  street,  with  a  green  lawn  in  front  of  it,  on 
which  were  a  few  trees  with  broad-spreading 
branches.  Acros  the  gable  end  of  the  house 
which  stood  toward  the  street  was  a  raised 
balcony  with  a  balustrade  intertwined  with 
rosebushes.  From  my  sleeping-room  I  could 
step  out  on  this  balcony.  I  love  even  now  to 
recall  what  I  saw  in  those  early  days,  in  the  sun- 
lit branches  of  the  great  trees  opposite  my  win- 
dow. One  morning  in  particular  I  beheld  an 
innumerable  throng  of  little  fairies,  —  knights 
and  ladies  in  flowing  scarfs  and  plumes  and  gay- 
colored  dresses,  —  flitting  to  and  fro  in  the 
golden  beams  of  the  early  morning.  I  presume 
the  picture  was  reflected  on  my  imagination  by 
stories  that  had  been  told  me  or  pictures  I  had 
seen  of  fairy  land.  At  all  events,  it  was  an  im- 
pression as  pleasing  as  it  has  been  lasting." 

Other  references  which  he  sometimes  made, 
in  talk  or  writing,  to  his  earlier  recollections, 
disclose  a  similar  dreamy  working  of  imagin- 
ation ;  and  this,  no  doubt,  which  created  realms 


EARLY   YEARS  ii 

of  fancy  for  the  child,  found  its  later  chosen 
use  in  illuminating  and  warming  the  sympathies 
of  the  mature  man,  keeping  him  from  the  stiff- 
ened lines  of  a  selfish  life.  Along  with  the  dreamy 
fancifulness  of  his  childish  mind  there  seems  to 
have  gone  naturally  a  degree  of  innocence  and 
simplicity  which  childhood  can  rarely  keep  long 
enough  to  remember  the  loss.  The  present 
writer  once  heard  Mr.  Letchworth  tell  of  the 
surprise  with  which  he  first  learned  that  there 
were  such  things  as  untruth  and  deceit.  The 
first  conception  of  them  that  dawned  on  him 
came  from  the  prank  of  a  boy  who  ran  into 
the  yard  in  which  he  was  playing  to  tell  him  that 
a  big  black  bull  was  on  the  other  side  of  the 
next  building  and  that  he  had  better  run  to  the 
house.  He  doubted  the  ability  of  the  bull  to 
reach  him,  but  did  not  for  a  moment  suspect 
that  there  was  no  bull ;  and  the  discovery  of 
that  fact  was  a  cruel  revelation  to  him  of  the 
nature  and  the  possibility  of  a  lie.  A  still  more 
cruel  and  perplexing  revelation  to  him  was  made, 
he  said,  at  about  the  same  period,  when  a  boy 
who  was  playing  with  him  became  angry  and 
threw  at  him  an  open  penknife,  which  struck 
him  just  over  the  eye,  coming  near  to  the  de- 
struction of  his  sight.  As  he  remembered  the 


12     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

feeling  excited  in  him  by  this  assault,  there  was 
no  anger  in  it,  but  sheer  bewilderment  and  sur- 
prise. Why  should  the  boy  want  to  hurt  him  ? 
He  could  not  in  the  least  understand  the  motive 
in  such  an  act.  These  little  incidents  are  inter- 
estingly suggestive  of  the  purity  and  whole- 
someness  of  the  family  life  in  which  William 
Letchworth  was  reared  and  of  the  training  he 
received. 

Very  little  of  autobiographical  material  is  to 
be  found  in  anything  left  by  Mr.  Letchworth, 
Parental  o^  letters  6r  other  writings.  In  the 
training  bits  of  reminiscence  that  he  did  now 
and  then  commit  to  paper  he  was  always  carried 
back  to  his  childhood.  One  such  tells  of  a 
project  he  formed,  apparently  in  his  twelfth  or 
thirteenth  year,  of  running  away  from  home. 

By  reading  the  h'ves  of  some  noted  men,  and  various 
stories  of  marvellous  adventure  [he  wrote],  I  was  im- 
pressed with  the  idea  that,  to  be  successful  and  achieve 
great  things,  it  was  necessary  that  one  should  run  away 
from  home  while  a  boy.  This  conclusion,  and  the  se- 
cret resolution  I  had  formed  to  act  on  it,  I  confided 
to  an  employe  of  my  father  of  whom  I  was  very  fond. 
He  basely  betrayed  me,  and  my  father  soon  found  the 
opportunity  for  a  private  conversation  with  me.  To 
my  dismay,  he  said :  "  William,  it  is  understood  that 


EARLY   YEARS  13 

thee  intends  to  leave  us,  I  am  sorry  to  learn  this,  as 
we  all  think  a  great  deal  of  thee.  Through  thy  early 
childhood  and  down  to  the  present  time  thee  has  been 
a  great  care  to  mother  and  myself,  to  say  nothing  of 
considerable  expense,  and  we  had  been  looking  forward 
to  the  time  when  thee  would  have  the  good  will  and 
strength  to  make  us  some  return  for  what  we  have 
tried  to  do  for  thee.  But,  since  thee  has  decided  to 
leave  us,  we  will  conform  ourselves  to  thy  wishes.  In 
the  carrying-out  of  thy  plan  there  is  one  thing,  how- 
ever, that  troubles  me,  and  that  is  thy  leaving  in  the 
night,  and  without  the  opportunity  of  our  bidding  thee 
good-bye.  Mother  has  a  pair  of  new  stockings  she  has 
knit  for  thee,  and  thy  brothers  and  sisters  would  like 
to  make  thee  some  little  presents,"  This  brought  me 
to  my  senses,  I  felt  shame  and  disgust  with  myself, 
and  nothing  more  was  said  of  the  running-away  plot. 

Nothing  could  be  told  of  the  father  of  Will- 
iam Pryor  Letchworth  that  would  illustrate 
more  significantly  the  wisdom  with  which  the 
youth  of  the  latter  was  trained,  and  the  fine  in- 
heritance of  mind  and  temper  on  which  it  was 
his  good  fortune  to  draw.  He  himself,  in  one 
of  his  reminiscent  notes,  has  given  us  just  a 
glimpse  of  the  family  government  and  of  the 
home  in  which  it  was  exercised. 

I  imagine  [he  says]  that  the  ways  adopted  by  my 
parents  for  bringing  up  their  children  did  not  differ 


14     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

materially  from  those  of  other  people ;  although  I  be- 
lieve they  had  stricter  rules  regarding  their  boys  run- 
ning in  the  street,  and  were  more  diligent  than  most 
parents  in  providing  means  of  recreation  and  useful 
employment  at  home.  My  mother  w^as  quite  practical 
in  her  views,  and  I  am  much  indebted  to  the  inculca- 
tion of  her  economic  principles.  She  made  much  of 
the  adage  that  "procrastination  is  the  thief  of  time  "  ; 
to  which  she  would  add :  "  Never  put  off  till  to- 
morrow, William,  that  which  should  be  done  to-day." 
Time,  she  said,  was  the  most  valuable  thing  in  the 
world,  as  nothing  could  be  done  without  it,  and  its 
loss  was  irreparable. 

On  winter  evenings,  during  the  season  in  which  we 
attended  the  public  school,  we  would  gather  round  the 
large  table  in  the  cheerful  dining-room,  with  our  books, 
slates,  and  writing-lessons,  and  prepare  ourselves  for 
the  next  day's  recitations  at  school.  Spelling  was  diffi- 
cult to  me,  but  I  was  so  desirous  of  perfecting  myself 
in  it  that,  in  addition  to  the  evening  study,  I  would 
have  my  father  call  me  at  four  o'clock  on  winter  morn- 
ings and  then  pursue  my  studies  alone.  .  .  .  My  ambi- 
tion to  perfect  myself  in  spelling  was  stimulated  by  the 
fact  that  there  was  a  young  miss  whom  I  felt  deter- 
mined to  excel.  In  those  days  we  had  what  were  called 
"  spelling-matches,"  in  which  the  pupils  of  different 
country  schools  came  together  on  a  winter  evening, 
under  a  challenge,  to  determine  which  was  the  best 
speller  by  the  process  of  "  spelling  down." 


EARLY    YEARS  15 

He  proceeds  to  give  an  account  of  a  spelling- 
match  which  finally  was  narrowed  to  a  contest 
between  the  young  miss  above  referred  to  and 
himself  Interest  in  the  struggle  had  been  height- 
ened by  people  in  the  audience,  who  built  up 
a  small  heap  of  silver  coins  on  the  teacher's 
desk,  which  should  go  as  a  prize  to  the  winner 
of  the  match.  William  stood  his  ground  till 
Cobb's  spelling-book  had  been  exhausted ;  but 
the  resort  then  to  Webster's,  which  he  had  never 
studied,  accomplished  his  defeat.  He  felt  cha- 
grined, at  first,  but  was  reconciled  to  his  dis- 
comfiture by  the  thought  that  his  opponent 
would  have  felt  worse  if  she  had  lost. 

One  of  the  few  gleanings  of  autobiographical 
material  from  Mr.  Letchworth's  papers  is  a  note, 
as  follows,  of  the  circumstances  of  his  Leaving 
going  from  the  family  home  into  the  l^ome 
outside  world,  to  begin  the  career  of  business 
which  he  followed  from  about  his  fifteenth  to 
his  fiftieth  year  :  — 

p'ather  was  doubtless  convinced  that,  with  my  am- 
bitious views,  I  would  never  be  content  at  home,  and, 
not  long  after  the  running-away  plot  had  been  dis- 
closed, he  made  application  to  the  head  of  an  import- 
ing and  manufacturing  house  [at  Auburn]  for  a  place 
for  me.   He  soon  received  a  reply,  asking  him  to  bring 


i6     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

me  to  the  city.  A  conversation  followed  between  the 
head  of  the  firm  and  my  father,  at  the  close  of  which 
my  father  said:  "Well,  William"  (addressing  the 
merchant  by  his  given  name),  "  I  have  endeavored 
thus  far  to  make  a  man  of  my  son,  and  will  ask  thee 
to  finish  the  task."  Before  leaving,  my  father  gave 
me  a  dollar,  with  the  remark  that  I  might  need  a  little 
pocket-money.  This  was  all  that  my  father  ever  gave 
me,  and  with  this  I  began  life.  A  few  years  after  I  had 
become  of  age  I  was  disposed  to  envy  one  of  my  former 
chums  whose  father  gave  him  five  thousand  dollars  to 
start  business  with  ;  but  his  experience  made  me  finally 
thankful  that  my  father  never  was  able  to  give  me  any- 
thing beyond  the  one  dollar. 

My  salary  with  the  firm  [Hayden  &  Holmes,  manu- 
facturers and  dealers  in  saddlery  hardware]  which  en- 
gaged me  was  fixed  at  forty  dollars  a  year,  and  living, 
and  out  of  this  I  was  to  clothe  myself  and  meet  all  my 
personal  expenses.  I  set  out  with  the  determination 
that  this  sum,  small  as  it  was,  should  suffice  for  all  my 
requirements.  The  result  was  that  I  saved  during  the 
year  between  two  and  three  dollars,  and  placed  the 
same  on  interest,  with  about  one  hundred  dollars  that 
my  father  had  presented  to  me  for  accumulation  while 
a  boy  at  home.'   The  realization  that  I  could  practice 

'  This  may  seem  contradictory  to  the  statement  above,  that 
the  dollar  which  his  father  gave  him  when  he  began  work  at 
Auburn  was  all  that  he  ever  received  ;  but  evidently  his  mean- 
ing in  that  statement  was,  that  he  had  no  help  in  money  from 
the  time  that  his  own  earnings  began. 


EARLY   YEARS  17 

sufficient  self-denial  to  live  within  my  means  gave  me 
greater  confidence  in  myself  and  strengthened  my  char- 
acter. Living  within  one's  means  is  as  necessary  to 
success  as  it  is  essential  to  one's  peace  of  mind  and 
happiness. 

In  later  years  Mr.  Letchworth  had  great  en- 
joyment in  telling  of  his  first  home-going  for 
an  over-Sunday  visit,  after  beginning  his  life  at 
Auburn,  and  of  the  disappointing  reception  he 
had.  Homesickness  had  made  the  first  week 
seem  almost  unendurable,  and  he  had  counted 
surely  on  being  liberated  from  the  end  of  the 
week  until  Monday;  but  no  suggestion  to  that 
effect  came,  and  he  mustered  fortitude  to  go 
through  seven  days  more.  Saturday  came  again, 
with  no  hint  of  a  thought  in  the  mind  of  his 
employer  that  he  could  wish  to  visit  his  home; 
and  he  bore  his  unhappiness  for  another  week. 
Then,  in  desperation,  he  found  courage  to  ask 
for  the  coveted  leave,  and  it  was  granted  with 
readiness  ;  but  a  hope  which  he  had  fondly  cher- 
ished, that  offers  of  the  use  of  a  horse  for  the 
journey  to  Sherwood  would  go  with  the  per- 
mission, had  no  realization.  There  were  thirteen 
miles  to  be  walked,  if  he  would  have  the  joy  of 
a  day  in  the  home  circle,  and  he  walked  them, 
arriving  at  some  time  in  the  evening,  super- 


i8     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

charged  with  his  own  excitement  of  delight,  and 
expecting  to  see  an  equal  excitement  when  he 
showed  his  face.  His  feeling  would  have  carried 
him  into  the  beloved  house  with  a  rush  ;  but  he 
held  himself  back  and  knocked  formally,  like  a 
neighbor  making  an  evening  call.  His  mother 
opened  the  door,  recognized  him  with  perfect 
serenity,  and  said:  "  Why,  William,  what  has 
brought  thee  home  so  soon  ? "  It  was  like  a 
dash  of  cold  water  in  the  face, —  the  revelation 
that  his  family  had  not  been  longing  as  impa- 
tiently for  him  as  he  for  them. 

But  time  wrought  a  change,  as  between  mother 
and  son,  in  feeling  on  the  subject  of  his  visits  to 
the  parental  roof;  for  we  find  his  father,  writ- 
ing to  him  in  April,  1841,  quoting  his  mother 
as  asking  :  "  Why  don't  that  boy  come  home?" 
and  then  saying:  "  I  answer  that, glad  as  I  should 
be  to  see  thee  oftener,  thou  hast  a  duty  to  per- 
form, and  the  performance  of  duties  frequently 
requires  the  sacrifice  of  personal  enjoyment  and 
comfort.  I  am  much  more  gratified  to  find  thee 
faithful  to  thy  trust  than  I  should  be  to  find 
thee  more  frequently  at  home,  much  as  such 
visit  would  gratify  me." 

Thus  William  had  his  graduation  from  home 
and  common  schools,  in  or  about  his  fifteenth 


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EARLY    YEARS  19 

year,  and  was  matriculated  in  the  university  of 
practical  affairs,  to  learn  the  ways  of  men  and  be 
trained  for  entrance  into  the  activities  clerkship 
of  the  world.  Ambition  had  an  early  ^*  Auburn 
growth  in  him,  as  he  more  than  once  confessed. 
Apparently  it  was  an  ambition  quite  undefined 
in  those  early  years.  Nothing  indicates  that  his 
aspirations  were  directed  toward  any  particular 
goal,  of  political  or  literary  or  scientific  renown, 
or  of  wealth.  What  he  felt  as  ambition  may  have 
been  just  an  upward-impelling  eager  spirit  which 
would  have  the  same  potency  in  all  situations, 
to  make  the  most  of  them,  get  the  best  out  of 
them,  rise  to  the  highest  of  their  offered  possi- 
bilities. All  that  is  told  of  his  youthful  clerk- 
ship in  the  service  of  Hayden  &  Holmes  goes 
to  show  that  this  spirit  was  as  manifest  in  it  as 
in  the  higher,  final  work  of  his  life.  He  studied 
the  making,  buying,  and  selling  of  saddlery  hard- 
ware as  carefully,  thoroughly,  zealously  as,  forty 
years  later,  he  studied  the  saving  of  homeless 
children,  the  care  of  epileptics,  and  the  treatment 
of  the  insane.  As  a  boy  he  accepted  the  assign- 
ment to  him  of  a  field  of  work  in  which  his 
means  of  living  were  to  be  earned,  and  labored 
in  it  without  stint;  as  a  man,  when  his  inde- 
pendence had  been  won,  he  chose  for  himself  a 


20     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

mission  of  social  service,  and  gave  himself  un- 
sparingly to  that.  The  fidelity  to  his  undertak- 
ing was  in  each  case  the  same. 

It  was  in  this  period  that  he  either  formu- 
lated or  borrowed  and  adopted  the  following 
*'  rules  of  conduct,"  a  copy  of  which,  dated  1 842, 
has  been  preserved:  — 

Rise  at  6  o'clock.  Breakfast  at  6.30.  Dinner  or 
lunch,  12.30.  Supper  at  6.30.  Retire  at  9.30.  Attend 
divine  service  once  every  Sunday.  Tell  the  truth  under 
all  circumstances,  when  necessary  to  speak.  Never 
wound  the  feelings  of  others  if  it  can  be  avoided. 
Strive  to  be  always  cheerful.  Review  the  actions  of 
the  day  every  night,  and  apply  to  them  the  test  of  my 
conscience.  In  business  affairs  keep  in  mind  that  "  pro- 
crastination is  the  thief  of  time,"  and  that  "  time  is 
money."  Be  temperate  in  all  things.  Strive  to  speak 
kindly,  without  giving  offence,  always  with  coolness 
and  deliberation,  having  due  regard  for  the  views  of 
others.  Aim  at  a  high  standard  of  character.  Attempt 
great  things  and  expect  great  things.  Aim  to  do  all 
possible  good  in  the  world,  and  so  live  as  to  live  here- 
after and  have  a  name  without  reproach. 

Those  who  knew  Mr.  Letchworth  in  his  ma- 
turity will  believe  that  it  was  easy  for  him  to  be 
obedient  to  these  rules,  most  of  which  must  have 
found  dictates  in  his  nature  and  needed  no  judi- 
cial mandate  of  will. 


BUSINESS    LIFE  2i 

In  the  service  of  Hayden  &  Holmes,  at  their 
establishment  in  Auburn,  the  youth  grew  to 
young  manhood,  remaining  six  or  seven  years, 
living  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Holmes,  as  a  friend, 
and  becoming  more  and  more  invaluable  to  the 
firm.  Their  business  was  an  extensive  one  for 
that  period,  employing  a  large  part  of  the  con- 
victs in  the  prison  workshops  at  Auburn,  under 
contract  with  the  State.  Mr.  Hayden,  the  senior 
partner  in  the  firm,  was  the  head  of  several 
other  establishments  in  the  same  line  of  busi- 
ness, at  different  points  in  the  country,  includ- 
ing one  at  New  York.  That  gentleman  had 
kept  an  eye  on  young  Letchworth,  noting  his 
intelligence,  his  fidelity,  the  complete  under- 
standing he  had  acquired  of  every  detail  of  the 
business,  and  the  good  judgment  with  which 
his  duties  were  performed,  with  the  result  that 
the  Auburn  clerk  was  called  to  a  post  of  more 
importance  at  New  York. 

This  advance  to  a  higher  school  of  business 
and  to  the  opening  of  a  larger  experience  of  life 
came  to  Mr.  Letchworth  in  the  sum-  service  in 
mer  or  fall  of  1 845,  —  the  year  after  New  York 
his  crossing  the  threshold  into  manhood's  es- 
tate. Of  the  three  years  of  his  life  and  work  in 
New  York  not  much  can  be  told.   He  wrote  fre- 


22     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

quently  to  his  parents  and  sisters,  and  his  letters 
were  carefully  kept,  as  all  similar  family  records 
were  preserved;  but  they  contain  almost  nothing 
that  touches  the  work  he  was  doing  or  the  cir- 
cumstances of  his  life  outside  of  his  work.  One 
letter  which  would  seem  to  have  been  excep- 
tional in  this  respect,  is  not  found  in  the  mass 
of  correspondence  that  came  into  the  present 
writer's  hands  ;  but  its  purport  is  intimated  in 
his  father's  reply  to  it,  January  i8,  1847,  when 
the  latter  wrote:  "Thy  letter,  after  giving  a  sat- 
isfactory statement  of  thy  affairs,  propounds  in 
some  measure  this  query:  'Have  I  come  up  to 
your  expectations?'  To  this  I  can  answer  affirm- 
atively, and  it  affiDrds  me  heartfelt  satisfaction, 
not  only  to  behold  the  fruits  of  those  principles 
and  sentiments  which  it  was  my  desire  to  culti- 
vate, being  assured  they  were  most  conducive 
to  happiness,  but  to  find  my  endeavors  so  well 
seconded;  to  see  my  children  themselves  cher- 
ishing those  principles  which,  if  they  do  not 
lead  to  wealth,  secure  enjoyment  and  tranquillity 
under  the  various  changes  of  life." 

In  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  his  younger  sis- 
ters, in  May,  1848,  there  is  a  passage  which 
indicates  that,  in  New  York  as  in  Auburn,  he 
had  immersed  himself  so  entirely  in  business  as 


BUSINESS    LIFE  23 

to  have  little  time  or  mind  for  any  other  inter- 
est in  life.  "  For  years,"  he  said,  "  I  have  de- 
voted my  whole  thought,  strength  and  energy  to 
one  thing,  business^  and  have  made  myself  mas- 
ter of  that  which  I  undertook  to  perform ;  but 
this  has  drawn  all  my  attention  from  literature, 
knowledge  and  art.  I  hope  that  ere  long  it  will  be 
otherwise.  ...  I  mean  now  to  cultivate  most  as- 
siduously the  social  ties  which  I  have  neglected 
so  long,  fearing  they  may  become  so  weakened 
as  to  have  no  influence  on  my  soul."  His  elder 
sister,  Mrs.  Crozer,  who  then  lived  at  Morris- 
ville,  Pennsylvania,  had  been  noting  with  anxi- 
ety, for  some  time  past,  the  intensity  of  his 
absorption  in  business,  and  had  remonstrated 
with  him  on  the  subject,  remarking,  in  a  letter 
of  two  years  earlier  writing:  "I  am  afraid  thee 
will  get  to  be  an  old  man  before  thee  has  been 
a  young  one  half  long  enough." 

This  good  sister,  who  was  his  elder  by  several 
years,  wrote  often  to  him,  with  warmly  affec- 
tionate interest  in  his  welfare,  giving  him  coun- 
sel that  seems  to  have  been  always  wisely  timed 
and  directed,  and  not  over-much.  Soon  after 
his  going  to  New  York  she  said  to  him:  "I 
hope  thee  will  form  some  agreeable  acquaint- 
ances; but  mind  and  form  the  right  kind.   And 


24     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCH  WORTH 

do  not  have  too  many  of  them ;  for  too  much 
company  is  of  no  advantage  to  a  young  man. 
Thee  is  placed  in  a  situation  where  thee  will 
meet  with  many  temptations,  and  thee  cannot 
be  too  much  on  thy  guard.  Form  good  resolu- 
tions, and  then  be  sure  not  to  break  them.  Per- 
haps these  few  words  of  advice  are  unnecessary, 
but  they  are  from  thy  loving  sister,  who  feels 
thy  interest  as  near  to  her  as  her  own." 

In  a  letter  of  June  ii,  1848,  to  his  sisters  in 
the  old  home  he  reported  his  removal  to  a 
boarding-house  in  Brooklyn,  and  described  an 
interesting  sight  which  he  had  witnessed  in  cross- 
ing the  river.  The  incident,  which  appears  al- 
most alone  in  his  letter-writing  from  New 
York,  has  a  quite  historical  interest  of  its  own  : 

Yesterday  [June  10,  1848,  he  wrote]  I  saw  a  beau- 
tiful sight, —  one  which  I  wish  you  could  have  parti- 
cipated in  seeing.  I  got  aboard  of  one  of  the  ferry 
boats  crossing  the  East  River  last  evening  at  precisely 
live  o'clock,  which  was  the  hour  for  the  sailing  of  the 
American  steam  packet  United  States.  As  the  City 
Hall  bell  struck  five  she  was  loosed  from  her  moorings, 
and  her  ponderous  wheels,  once  set  in  motion,  soon 
swung  her  into  the  river.  From  her  deck  a  cannon 
bellowed  forth  a  farewell  to  New  York;  the  star-span- 
gled banner  mounted  her  mast  and  unfolded  itself  to 


BUSINESS    LIFE  25 

the  breeze,  while  simultaneously,  from  every  packet- 
ship  and  steamboat  in  the  harbor,  flags  mounted  aloft, 
displaying  the  emblems  of  many  nations  beside  our 
own.  From  the  wharves  and  shipping  each  side  of  the 
river,  which  were  black  with  people,  there  arose  a  pro- 
longed and  deafening  shout,  with  the  waving  of  hats 
and  handkerchiefs.  She  seemed  proudly  conscious  of 
the  attention  shown  her,  and,  turning  her  head  south- 
ward when  in  the  middle  of  the  stream,  she  departed 
like  a  huge  thing  of  life.  You  may  think  it  singular 
that  so  much  anxiety  should  be  felt  at  the  departure 
of  a  steamer  from  this  port,  when  it  is  such  a  common 
occurrence;  but  this  is  the  first  American  steamer  that 
has  as  yet  met  with  even  tolerable  success.  It  has 
made  but  one  trip,  and  has  done  well. 

He  was  now  near  the  ending  of  his  residence 
in  New  York.  Before  the  year  closed  he  had 
entered  into  new  arrangements  of  in  business 
business  which  carried  him  to  Buf-  at  Buffalo 
falo,  and  into  a  partnership  with  the  Messrs. 
Pratt  &  Co.,  leading  hardware  merchants  of 
that  city.  They  had  known  him,  at  Auburn 
and  at  New  York,  through  their  dealings  with 
the  firm  of  Flayden  &  Holmes,  and  evidently 
they  had  formed  a  high  opinion  of  his  worth. 
Accordingly,  having  planned  to  increase  the 
importance  of  the  saddlery  hardware  depart- 
ment of  their  business,  they  made  overtures  to 


26     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

Mr.  Letchworth  which  became  definite  in  Oc- 
tober, 1848,  and  which  resulted  quickly  in  the 
organization  of  a  new  firm,  under  the  name  of 
Pratt  &  Letchworth,  distinct  in  business  from 
that  of  Pratt  &  Co.,  but  in  which  Mr.  Letch- 
worth was  associated  with  the  three  members 
of  the  latter  firm,  namely,  Samuel  F.  Pratt, 
Pascal  P.  Pratt,  and  Edward  P.  Beals.  In  a 
"Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Samuel  F.  Pratt,"  writ- 
ten and  privately  printed  by  Mr.  Letchworth 
after  his  elder  partner's  death,  he  states  that  the 
negotiations  which  brought  him  into  this  con- 
nection were  conducted  by  Mr.  Pascal  P.  Pratt, 
with  his  brother's  concurrence,  and  he  adds : 
"  I  think  few  partnerships  ever  existed  with  so 
uniformly  pleasant  relations.  In  reviewing  the 
long  intercourse  between  Samuel  F.  Pratt  and 
myself,  I  cannot  recall,  in  all  the  discussions 
growing  out  of  the  perplexities  of  business,  one 
unkind  word  or  even  harsh  tone." 

In  their  letter-headings  the  purposes  of  the 
new  firm  were  made  known  by  this  announce- 
ment :  "  Pratt  &  Letchworth,  having  purchased 
of  Messrs.  Pratt  &  Co.  their  entire  stock  of 
saddlery  and  carriage  hardware,  will  now  devote 
their  whole  attention  to  this  branch  of  business. 
Having  made  extensive  arrangements  for  manu- 


WILLIAM   PRYOR  LETCHWORTH   AS  A  YOUNG  MAN 


BUSINESS    LIFE  27 

facturing  japanned  goods,  hames,  etc.,  and  em- 
ployed skilful  and  experienced  workmen  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  on  the  silver-  and  brass- 
plating  business  in  all  its  various  branches, 
they  are  now  prepared  to  make  goods  of  a  su- 
perior quality."  The  firm  were  further  described 
as  "  importers  and  manufacturers  of  every  va- 
riety of  saddlery  and  carriage  hardware  and 
trunk  trimmings." 

Here,  then,  William  Pryor  Letchworth,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-five,  had  come  to  the  open- 
ing of  a  quite  perfect  opportunity  for  making, 
to  his  own  advantage  as  well  as  to  the  advan- 
tage of  others,  a  full  use  of  the  business  know- 
ledge and  experience  he  had  been  storing  care- 
fully for  ten  years.  He  had  come  to  it  from 
bright  prospects  in  New  York.  In  a  letter  writ- 
ten to  him  that  year  by  Peter  Hayden,  the  head 
of  the  firm  he  had  served,  it  was  remarked  that 
"  he  had  been  treated  more  like  a  partner  than 
a  clerk."  His  position  had  been  one  which,  in 
his  father's  judgment,  "  thousands  might  envy, 
and  so  much  better  than  thousands  could  attain 
to,"  that  "no  trifling  inducements  should  have 
led  to  a  change."  So  the  father  wrote,  not  in 
criticism  of  the  change,  but  in  expressing  his 
belief  that  it  was  wisely  made.  Ample  proof  of 


28     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

its  wisdom  soon  appeared  in  the  growing  busi- 
ness of  Pratt  &  Letchworth,  as  developed  by 
its  young  manager  in  the  course  of  the  next 
few  years.  In  its  first  year  it  encountered  the 
general  depression  of  all  activities  by  the  cholera 
visitation  of  1849  ;  yet  William  could  write  in 
November  to  a  friend  that  "  business  has  been 
very  good,  notwithstanding  the  cholera." 

That  year  he  was  visited  by  his  father  and 
mother,  and  had  the  pleasure  of  showing  them 
Niagara  Falls,  which  neither  had  seen  before. 
In  that  year,  too,  he  was  joined  by  his  elder 
brother,  Edward,  who  without  becoming  a 
member  of  the  firm,  was  connected  importantly 
thereafter  with  the  business  of  Pratt  &  Letch- 
worth throughout  his  life.  His  younger  bro- 
ther, George,  who  had  followed  him  into  the 
service  of  his  former  employers,  at  Auburn, 
now  acquired  an  interest  in  their  business,  and 
presently  became  the  junior  member  of  that 
firm. 

The  first  exhibit  of  itself  that  Buffalo  made 
to  its  new  citizen  was  in  its  winter  and  spring 
aspect,  which,  most  certainly,  is  not  the  best 
it  can  show.  In  March,  1849,  he  wrote  laugh- 
ingly about  the  Buffalo  breezes  to  his  sister 
Charlotte :  "  I  suppose  thee  has  become  entirely 


BUSINESS   LIFE  29 

out  of  patience  in  looking  for  a  letter  from  that 
truant  brother  of  thine  at  *the  West.'  Perhaps 
thee  imagines  that  I  have  got  so  far  west  as  to 
have  gone  beyond  the  influence  of  good  society, 
and  lost  sight  of  the  good  custom  of  correspond- 
ence among  friends.  ...  I  have  made  as  yet 
but  few  acquaintances  here  in  Buffalo,  save  in 
the  way  of  business.  .  .  .  I  have  enjoyed  excel- 
lent health  since  I  came  here,  and  I  like  the 
place  very  well,  notwithstanding  it  is  quite  windy 
sometimes.  Not  long  since  I  saw  a  man  on  a 
load  of  lumber  passing  our  store.  His  load  was 
of  pine  boards,  an  inch  thick.  A  gust  of  wind 
happening  just  then  scattered  the  boards  all  over 
the  street  and  tumbled  off  the  man.  Ladies  who 
walk  out  in  windy  weather  run  from  one  awn- 
ing post  to  another  in  the  intervals  between 
gusts,  and  get  along  in  this  way  very  well  when 
the  wind  is  in  their  favor.  A  few  days  ago  I  saw 
a  lady,  on  arriving  at  the  corner  of  a  street, 
thrown  off  her  feet,  and  the  wind  carried  her 
completely  round  the  corner." 

In  June  he  was  feeling  differently,  and  wrote 
to  a  friend  :  "The  longer  I  stay  in  Buffalo  the 
better  I  like  it.  When  I  came  here  it  was  win- 
ter, and  everything  looked  cold  and  bleak;  but 
it  is  a  pleasant  spot  in  the  summer  time.  The 


30     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

breeze  from  the  lake  keeps  it  cool  and  the  at- 
mosphere pure." 

In  another  letter  he  speaks  of  attending  the 
Friends'  Meeting,  at  East  Hamburg  (about 
ten  miles  from  Buffalo),  there  being  none  in  the 
city,  and  says  that  he  should  have  done  so  more 
frequently  if  it  had  not  been  a  cholera  year,  and 
he  wished  to  keep  as  quiet  as  possible. 

For  some  years  after  he  assumed  the  respon- 
sibilities that  attended  the  establishing  and  up- 
Strenuous  building  of  such  a  business  as  that  of 
years  of  Pratt  &  Letchworth  became,  the  bur- 
business        jgj^  ^^  j^jj^  must  have  been  heavy  to 

bear.  Even  more  than  in  his  'prentice  years  with 
Hayden  &  Holmes,  his  life  appears  to  have 
been  immersed  in  the  affairs  of  the  factory  and 
the  counting-room.  Outside  of  what  relates  to 
these  there  is  little  record  of  what  he  thought  or 
felt  or  said  or  did,  for  four  or  five  years.  Prob- 
ably it  was  still  the  fact,  as  he  wrote  in  March, 
1849,  that  he  had  made  few  acquaintances  in 
Buffalo  "  save  in  the  way  of  business."  For  so- 
cial relaxations  he  cannot  have  had  much  time. 
In  a  letter  to  his  brother  George,  written  on 
Christmas  Day,  1852,  there  is  a  cry  that  seems 
wrung  from  him  by  the  consciousness  that  he  is 
overtasking  his  strength.   He  can  never  have 


BUSINESS    LIFE  31 

been  robust  in  physique,  and,  though  no  illness 
or  disability  is  spoken  of,  he  had  been  brought 
somewhat  sharply,  perhaps,  to  a  realization  that 
his  health  was  insecure.  "  Oh,  that  I  had  an  iron 
constitution,  as  some  have,"  he  exclaimed.  "  Of 
all  things  earthly  that  God  could  bestow  upon  me 
I  could  pray  for  nothing  more  fervently  than  for 
strong,  rugged,  robust  health.  If  I  was  a  parent 
or  a  husband  I  should  be  careful  of  my  health ; 
as  it  is  I  am  reckless." 

There  is  an  unwonted  exaggeration  in  this 
language ;  for  it  was  not  in  Mr.  Letchworth's 
nature  to  be  reckless  of  anything  that  had  claims 
on  him  as  serious  as  the  claims  of  health.  In  the 
course  of  the  following  year  he  must  have  been 
so  shaping  matters  in  his  business  as  to  relax  its 
demands  on  him  ;  for  in  the  next  December  he 
announced  to  the  family  at  Auburn  his  intention 
to  spend  some  months  of  the  winter  in  Florida, 
and  he  addressed  a  pleading  invitation  to  his 
sister  Charlotte  to  be  his  companion  in  the  trip. 
Disappointing  circumstances  refused  him  that 
companionship,  by  detaining  his  sister  at  home, 
and  he  went  southward  alone,  in  February,  1 854, 
remaining  in  warmer  regions  until  late  in  the 
ensuing  spring.  Apparently  the  rest  and  the 
change  of  climate  and  of  scenes  were  of  good 


32     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

effect,  and  he  came  back  to  about  two  years 
more  of  unbroken  business  cares.  Then,  in  1856, 
his  brother  Josiah  came  into  the  business,  and 
was  prepared  to  undertake  its  general  manage- 
ment while  William,  sailing  from  New  York  on 
the  loth  of  December,  indulged  himself  in  a 
year  of  travel  abroad.  In  the  midst  of  his  tour 
he  was  stricken  with  grief  by  news  of  the  death 
of  his  father,  which  occurred  at  Auburn,  on  the 
14th  of  April,  1857.  He  returned  home  in  the 
fall  of  that  year,  much  enriched  in  knowledge 
and  ideas,  and  bettered  no  doubt  in  body  as  well 
as  in  mind,  though  his  respite  from  business  had 
not  been  rest.  In  his  sight-seeing  he  had  been 
as  industriously  thorough  as  in  everything  else 
that  he  did ;  but  an  intelligent  interest  in  that 
sort  of  educational  experience  can  make  it  as 
curative  as  rest.  In  letters  to  the  home  circle 
he  wrote  an  elaborate  narrative  of  his  travels,  all 
of  which  has  been  perfectly  preserved.  It  offers 
nothing,  however,  that  would  have  significance 
in  this  story  of  his  life. 

From  his  vacation  year  Mr.  Letchworth  came 

-,    .  back  to  resume  the  headship  of  the 

Business  ^  ^ 

labors  business  of  Pratt  &  Letchworth,  but 

lightened  under  circumstances  which  undoubt- 
edly eased  his  labors  and  cares.  In  his  brothers 


BUSINESS    LIFE  33 

he  now  had  a  staff  of  the  greatest  possible  help- 
fulness to  him,  and  throughout  the  establish- 
ment there  was  an  organized  efficiency  of  work. 
Somewhat  later,  when  the  firm  bought  property 
at  Black  Rock  for  the  location  of  their  manu- 
facturing plant,  a  great  development  of  that  side 
of  their  business  was  begun.  The  manufacture 
of  malleable  iron  was  undertaken  soon  after,  and 
that  became  one  of  the  leading  industrial  enter- 
prises of  the  city,  in  the  establishment  of  which 
Mr.  William  P.  Letchworth  and  his  brother 
Josiah  were  actively  and  closely  cooperative. 
But,  generally  speaking,  from  the  time  of  the 
former's  return,  in  the  fall  of  1857,  there  appear 
signs  that  he  had  more  leisure  to  give  to  inter- 
ests outside  of  the  making  and  marketing  of 
goods,  and  was  enjoying  a  widened  intercourse 
with  people  in  Buffalo  on  other  than  business 
lines.  Many  of  the  important  friendships  of  his 
after  life  seem  traceable  to  this  period,  and  there 
is  really  no  doubt  that  the  trend  of  his  life  un- 
derwent a  notable  turn  within  a  few  years  that 
followed  the  vacation  of  1857. 

It  was  soon  after  his  return  that  he  began  to 
entertain  the  thought  of  acquiring  a  pleasant 
country  place,  for  summer  rest  and  for  the  en- 
tertainment of  friends.   In  the  first  instance  that 


34     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

thought  was  directed  toward  certain  attractive 
spots  on  the  Niagara  and  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Erie ;  but  before  his  quest  had  gone  far  in  those 
regions  a  friend  drew  his  attention  to  the  upper 
falls  of  the  Genesee  and  the  beautiful  valley  in 
which  they  are  set.  This  suggestion  induced  him 
to  choose  the  Erie  Railway  for  the  return  trip 
of  a  visit  which  he  made  soon  afterward  to  New 
York,  and  to  make  a  stop  at  Portage,  where 
that  road  crosses  the  Genesee.  One  look  then 
taken  from  the  high  railway  bridge  into  the  glen 
below  sealed  his  mind  against  a  willing  accept- 
ance of  any  other  spot  for  the  country  home  he 
desired.  He  did  not  easily  or  quickly  win  pos- 
session of  the  coveted  ground,  but  it  was  yielded 
to  him  at  last,  as  will  be  told.  "Glen  Iris,"  res- 
cued from  vandalism,  restored  to  all  its  natural 
beauty  and  animated  with  a  life  as  ideally  Arca- 
dian as  itself,  claims  a  chapter  apart. 

Among  the  people  with  whom  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  had  formed  recent  intimacies  were  two 
Social  and  ^^dies  of  literary  note,  Mrs.  H.  E. 
literary  re-  G.  Arey  and  Mrs.  C.  H.  Gilder- 
lationships  sleeve,  who  were  close  friends.  Mrs. 
Arey  had  been  the  editor  of  a  local  magazine, 
"The  Home";  but  some  differences  arose  be- 
tween the  publisher  and  herself  which  caused 


BUSINESS    LIFE  35 

her  to  withdraw  from  that  connection,  in  1857, 
and  the  two  friends  planned  the  founding  of  a 
new  magazine.  Mr.  Letchworth  interested  him- 
self in  their  project  very  warmly,  to  the  extent, 
at  least,  of  subscribing  for  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  copies,  which  he  caused  to  be  distributed 
far  and  near.  Possibly  he  gave  financial  assist- 
ance more  directly;  but,  however  that  may  be, 
he  was  importantly  a  patron  of  the  new  period- 
ical. Its  first  number  was  issued  in  January, 
1859,  bearing  the  title  of  "The  Home  Monthly." 
It  had  a  good  reception,  and  achieved  as  much 
success  for  several  years  as  a  literary  periodical 
provincially  located  could  expect.  In  its  second 
year  of  publication  Mr.  Letchworth  contributed 
to  the  magazine  two  serial  tales  entitled  "As- 
ton Hall"  and  "The  Burial  of  a  Broken 
Heart,"  veiling  the  authorship  with  the  pseudo- 
nym of  Saxa  Hilda,  —  a  nom  de  plume  which  he 
signed  to  occasional  letters  in  the  daily  newspa- 
pers of  the  city  during  several  years.  His  author- 
ship of  these  writings  was  effectually  concealed 
for  a  time;  but  the  secret  leaked  gradually,  with 
a  resulting  disappearance  of  Saxa  Hilda  from 
the  world  of  print.  Apparently  Mr.  Letchworth 
made  no  further  essays  in  fiction, — though 
these  were  not  discouraging,  in  the  least.    He 


36     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

was  destined  to  do  much  and  greatly  valuable 
work  with  his  pen;  to  win  a  wide  reputation  by 
his  writings,  extending  to  many  lands;  but  the 
subjects  of  his  writing  would  be  sought  in  the 
most  serious  realities  of  life. 

At  some  time  in  1859  Mr.  Letchworth  was 
invited  to  membership  in  a  club,  called  "The 
Nameless,"  which  a  few  young  men  of  congenial 
tastes  had  formed  in  Buffalo  within  the  previous 
year.  In  most  circumstances  this  would  not  have 
been  an  occurrence  that  called  for  biographical 
mention;  but  it  proved  to  be  of  no  small  influ- 
ence on  the  life  recorded  here,  because  of  the 
important  friendships  to  which  it  led.  A  few  of 
those  who  formed  the  club  had  been  brought 
together  in  the  first  instance  by  their  common 
discovery,  in  1857,  that  the  pleasant  library 
room  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Union  (as 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  was  then  named)  in  what  was 
known  as  the  Kremlin  Hall  Block,  had  been 
made  a  most  attractive  place  of  resort  by  the 
presence  in  it  of  a  charming  librarian,  David 
Gray.  Half  a  dozen  of  these  discoverers  ac- 
quired quickly  the  habit  of  spending  all  possible 
evenings  in  the  company  of  Mr.  Gray,  clustered 
for  talk  in  a  corner  of  what  might  be  called  his 
salon.    Out  of  those  gatherings  came   the  club 


BUSINESS    LIFE  37 

which  Mr.  Letchworth  joined  in  its  second 
year.  There  he  met  at  least  two  men  to  whom 
his  heart  went  out  with  a  warmth  of  affection 
that  he  gave,  probably,  to  no  others,  apart  from 
his  own  nearest  kin.  One  was  David  Gray, 
whom  he  loved  as  the  first  of  Davids  was  loved; 
the  other  was  James  Nicoll  Johnston,  to  whom, 
after  half  a  century  of  the  closest  friendship  and 
constant  association,  he  referred  in  his  last  will  as 
"my  warm  friend  and  wise  counsellor  through 
many  years."  With  William  C.  Bryant,  George 
H.  Selkirk,  Jerome  B.  Stillson,  and  others  of  the 
Nameless  circle,  he  grew  into  relations  that  dif- 
fered from  mere  friendly  acquaintanceship  in 
a  marked  degree.  The  writer  of  this  memoir 
was  of  that  circle  when  Mr.  Letchworth  came 
into  it,  and  knew  him  with  intimacy  until  his 
death. 

The  little  circle  was  soon  undergoing  painful 
breakages  by  the  going  of  one  and  another,  at 
the  call  of  the  country,  to  do  battle  in  defence 
of  its  national  union;  and,  if  Mr.  Letchworth 
could  have  been  blessed  with  the  "strong,  rug- 
ged, robust  health  "  for  which  he  had  prayed  so 
earnestly  a  few  years  before,  he  would  have 
been  one  to  answer  the  call.  He  knew  that  his 
body  would   not  endure  the  hardships  of  the 


38     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

soldier's  duty,  but  he  wished  to  join  the  army- 
hospital  service  and  find  there  a  field  of  useful- 
ness to  the  cause.  His  physician  and  the  army 
surgeon  agreed,  however,  in  deciding  that  even 
that  undertaking  of  war-service  was  beyond  his 
strength. 

Glen  Iris,  which  he  had  secured,  was  now 
affording  him  frequent  escapes  from  the  city, 
and  the  great  enjoyment  of  planning  and  work- 
ing for  the  restoration  of  its  whole  perfect  na- 
tural beauty  and  charm.  His  business  had  as- 
sumed an  organization  and  an  order  which 
lessened  its  demands  on  his  personal  action  in 
it  more  and  more.  In  1863  his  staff  was  greatly 
strengthened  by  the  enlistment  of  a  new  aide, 
in  the  person  of  his  friend,  James  N.  Johnston, 
whose  subsequent  years  of  confidential  employ- 
ment in  the  house  of  Pratt  &  Letchworth  gave 
the  friendship  its  superlative  seal.  He  gained 
another  close  friend  and  strong  helper  in  the 
business  when  Mr.  Henry  R.  Howland  came 
into  it,  in  1869.  Marriage  recently  had  brought 
Mr.  Howland  into  a  nearness  of  relationship 
with  Mr.  Letchworth  which  his  personal  quali- 
ties drew  closer,  with  consequent  intimacies  of 
association  that  were  important  to  both. 

While  his  own  business  was  relaxing  its  hold 


BUSINESS   LIFE  39 

on  him,  other  interests  in   Buffalo  were  having 

opportunity  to  recognize  the  capacity  of  Mr. 

Letchworth    for    important    service 

....  .  .  .         President  of 

to  them,  and  his  mborn  disposition  the  Fine 

towards  usefulness  to  his  fellows  in  Arts  Aca- 

1  •  /•      T  ...  demv 

lire.  Important  institutions  were  so- 
liciting him  to  accept  places  of  trust  and  lead- 
ership in  the  management  of  their  affairs.  By 
consecutive  annual  elections  he  was  made  and 
continued  president  of  the  Buffalo  Fine  Arts 
Academy  from  1871  to  1874.  The  Academy  was 
then  entering  the  tenth  year  of  its  hard  struggle 
for  existence,  throughout  which  he  had  been  one 
of  its  staunch  supports.  Its  situation  was  set  forth 
at  the  annual  meeting,  March  9,  1871,  when 
Mr.  Letchworth  took  the  chair  as  president,  in 
an  address  by  Mr.  Joseph  Warren,  who  said:  — 

The  Academy  was  formally  instituted  on  the  nth 
of  November,  1862.  Among  those  most  earnest  in 
the  enterprise  were  ex-President  Fillmore,  Oliver  G. 
Steele,  Henry  W.  Rogers,  Sherman  S.  Jewett,  Bron- 
son  C.  Rumsey,  A.  P.  Nichols,  Rev.  Dr.  Chester, 
George  S.  Hazard,  E.  P.  Dorr,  William  P.  Letch- 
worth, Henry  A.  Richmond,  John  Allen,  William 
Dorsheimer,  and  L.  G.  Sellstedt.  These  gentlemen, 
reinforced  from  time  to  time  by  others,  have  held  the 
laboring  oar  in  this  enterprise  for  the  past  nine  years. 


40     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

They  have  not  met  with  the  support  and  encourage- 
ment which  the  citizens  of  Buffalo  owe  to  those  who 
toil  for  the  public  good.  .  .  .  The  financial  situa- 
tion is  this:  If  the  managers  can  secure  about  $2000 
with  which  to  pay  outstanding  debts,  and  a  fund  of 
;^  1 0,000  to  be  permanently  invested,  so  that  the  in- 
terest may  be  applied  to  the  payment  of  any  deficit 
that  may  occur,  or,  if  there  be  no  deficit,  to  the  pur- 
chase of  paintings,  the  Academy  can  be  maintained; 
otherwise  the  cloud  of  doubt  will  continue  to  darken 
its  future.  A  book  has  been  opened  and  ^4500  have 
been  subscribed,  upon  the  condition  that  the  ^12,000 
needed  shall  be  raised. 

It  was  at  the  crisis  of  its  history,  therefore, 
that  Mr.  Letchworth  took  the  presidency  of  the 
Fine  Arts  Academy.  One  year  later,  at  the  next 
annual  opening,  on  the  24th  of  February,  1872, 
he  was  able  to  announce  that  the  $4500  of  sub- 
scriptions to  the  permanent  fund  which  Mr. 
Warren  had  reported  twelve  months  before  had 
been  raised  to  $20,350,  including  $10,000  from 
Mr.  Sherman  S.  Jewett,  alone.  Thus  "  the  cloud 
of  doubt"  on  the  future  existence  ofthe  Academy 
had  been  lifted  ;  its  dissolution  was  no  longer  in 
question,  though  the  upbuilding  ofthe  institu- 
tion as  an  agency  of  culture  in  the  city  would 
still  be  difficult  and  slow  work. 


BUSINESS    LIFE  41 

To  that  work  Mr.  Letchworth  gave  the  best 
of  his  energies  and  the  best  of  his  thought.  In 
the  four  years  of  his  administration  as  president, 
and  subsequently  as  one  of  the  trustees  of  its 
permanent  fund,  he  has  always  been  credited 
with  an  influence  in  the  systematizing  of  the 
finances  of  the  Academy  that  was  lasting  and 
wise.  His  influence  was  directed  with  equal  wis- 
dom toward  the  broadening  of  the  educational 
mission  of  the  Academy,  —  as  when,  in  his  ad- 
dress at  the  annual  opening  of  1872,  he  urged 
the  great  need  in  the  city  of  a  school  of  design, 
"  where  may  be  taught,"  he  said,  "  not  only  paint- 
ing and  sculpture,  but  also  a  variety  of  lesser 
but  kindred  arts,  which  have  their  part  of  use 
as  well  as  of  beauty  in  our  daily  lives.  Such  a 
feature  engrafted  on  this  institution  would  fill 
in  part  a  hiatus  now  existing  between  the  point 
where  our  present  educational  system  leaves  off^ 
and  that  at  which  practical  labor  begins."  Going 
further  than  the  suggestion,  he  initiated  the  rais- 
ing of  a  fund  for  beginning  such  instruction. 
The  Art  School,  however,  as  a  child  of  the  Acad- 
emy, did  not  come  until  a  score  and  a  half  of 
years  had  run  past;  but  Mr.  Letchworth  has  no 
share  of  responsibility  for  that  delay. 


CHAPTER   II 


GLEN    IRIS 


It  was  not  long  after  Mr.  Letchworth's  return, 
in  the  fall  of  1857,  from  his  European  tour,  that 
he  stopped  at  Portage  Bridge,  on  the  Erie  Rail- 
way, to  see  the  glen  in  which  the  Genesee  River 
makes  its  upper  and  middle  fall.  Probably  it 
was  in  the  spring  of  1858.  From  the  bridge  he 
saw  how  nature  had  produced  here  a  perfect  mas- 
terpiece of  scenic  composition,  blending  beauty 
with  grandeur  in  transcendent  accord,  and  how 
man  had  done  what  he  could  with  his  tools  of 
destruction  to  wreck  the  noble  piece  of  work. 
But  he  saw,  too,  that  the  vandalism  of  men  had 
no  power  to  do  more  than  mar  the  surfaces  of 
such  a  picture,  and  that  nature  would  very  lov- 
ingly renew  them  if  she  could  be  given  the 
chance. 

Climbing  down  from  the  bridge  to  the  stretch 
of  narrow  "  flat  "  which  borders  the  river  on  its 
Wreckers  of  ^^^^  bank  between  the  upper  and  the 
the  forest  middle  fall,  he  strolled  along  the 
stream  to  a  sawmill,  which  was  finishing,  in  a 


O 
a, 

o 

< 


o 

> 

S 

» 

o 


GLEN    IRIS  43 

feeble  way,  the  havoc  of  the  ancient  forests  that 
had  clothed  the  hillsides  of  the  glen.  It  was 
evident  that  few  trees  which  would  "  pay  "  for 
the  cutting  remained,  and  Mr.  Letchworth,  on 
entering  into  conversation  with  the  proprietor 
of  the  mill,  soon  found  that  its  resources  of  busi- 
ness were  nearly  spent.  Afterwards,  from  the 
recollection  of  old  inhabitants,  he  learned  that 
the  "mill-power"  at  the  middle  fall  had  been 
bought  as  early  as  1821,  and  that  a  sawmill  was 
put  in  operation  there  at  some  time  between 
that  date  and  1824.  The  first  attempt  to  de- 
velop power  was  by  excavating  a  raceway  from 
the  brink  of  the  middle  fall  to  a  point  some  dis- 
tance upstream,  and  the  breaking-up  of  the  rock 
was  undertaken  by  dropping  a  ninety-six-pound 
iron  ball  from  some  considerable  height.  This 
crude  attempt  failing,  the  river  was  finally 
dammed,  a  little  above  the  fall.  Later  a  wooden 
bridge  was  thrown  across.  Both  the  dam  and 
the  bridge  were  in  existence  for  some  time  after 
Mr.  Letchworth  became  lord  of  the  domain. 
The  original  sawmill  was  carried  away  by  a  flood, 
and  was  succeeded  by  a  more  ambitious  lumber- 
ing plant.  This  included  a  set  of  gangsaws,  a 
planing-mill  and  a  sash  and  blind  factory,  all  of 
which   had  been  pursuing  their  attack  on  the 


44     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

neighborhoodforestsuntiljust  before  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  came  on  the  scene.  As  he  first  saw  the 
glen  there  was  no  planing-mill  and  no  accom- 
panying factory  to  aggravate  the  sawmill's  offens- 
iveness.  They  had  been  burned  on  the  23d  of 
January,  1858. 

From  this  first  reconnoissance  of  the  ground 
Mr.  Letchworth  returned  to  Buffalo  with  frag- 
Purchase  of  ments  of  information  concerning  the 
the  glen  mill  property  and  adjacent  pieces 
which  led  him  to  conclude  that  it  would  not  be 
impossible  for  him  to  buy  what  he  desired  at 
no  extravagant  cost.  Negotiations  to  that  end 
were  opened  presently,  but  did  not  run  with 
smoothness  to  an  early  consummation.  The 
land  necessary  for  taking  in  to  one  estate,  on 
the  west  side  of  the  river,  the  view  that  embraces 
the  upper  and  middle  falls,  the  plateau  above 
the  latter  and  the  hillsides  behind  the  plateau, 
was  in  a  number  of  hands.  Mr.  Letchworth 
would  purchase  none  of  this  if  he  could  not  pur- 
chase all.  Some  of  the  first  offers  proposed  to 
him  were  rejected  emphatically,  and  the  nego- 
tiations appear  to  have  been  at  a  standstill  for 
several  months.  Then  he  submitted  to  the  sev- 
eral owners  a  proposal  which  he  assured  them 
was  an  absolutely  final  one,  beyond  which  he 


GLEN    IRIS  45 

would  not  go.  They  understood,  evidently,  that 
he  meant  what  he  said,  and  early  in  February, 
1859,  the  conveyance  he  desired  had  been  made 
to  him. 

In  happy  possession  now  of  the  long  abused 
glen,  with  the  right  and  the  power  to  offer  na- 
ture a  free  hand  in  it  again,  his  first  tasks  were 
to  make  himself  a  habitation  and  to  clear  the 
wreckage  and  the  rubbish  of  the  lumbermen's 
work  from  the  face  of  the  scene.  On  the  plateau 
which  overlooks  the  middle  fall,  at  precisely  the 
place  he  would  have  chosen  for  his  home,  his 
earliest  predecessor  on  the  ground  had  built,  in 
the  first  instance  a  small  log  house,  and  then  a 
larger  framed  structure,  of  two  stories,  which  he 
opened  as  a  temperance  tavern  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  picnic  parties  and  other  summer  vis- 
itors, who  came  in  considerable  numbers  from 
neighboring  towns  to  see  the  falls.  To  increase 
the  attractions  of  the  place  he  built  a  large  boat 
and  launched  it  on  the  long  pond  which  the 
mill-dam  had  created  between  the  two  falls. 
These  popular  attractions  were  of  the  past;  the 
house  was  no  longer  a  tavern  when  it  came  to 
Mr.  Letchworth,  and  he  set  about  converting 
it  to  his  own  use.  He  had  no  ambition  to  build 
a  mansion  in  its  place.    His  taste  was  superior 


46     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

to  the  bringing  of  obtrusive  architecture  into 
the  noble  landscape  of  his  estate.  With  no  defin- 
ite planning  for  the  future,  perhaps,  he  began 
with  some  simple  remodellings  and  new  con- 
structions in  and  about  the  building,  which 
converted  it  presently  into  a  pleasant  and  com- 
fortable abode,  contenting  himself  and  delight- 
ing his  guests.  He  may  sometimes  in  the  after 
years  have  had  thoughts  of  building  differently, 
but  if  so  he  never  went  beyond  the  thought. 
From  time  to  time  there  were  changes  made, 
additions  built,  conveniences  improved  in  the 
modest  house,  and  thus  it  satisfied  him  to  the 
end  of  his  life. 

His  correspondence  in  1859  shows  that  he 
spent  a  good  deal  of  time  that  year  on  his  new 
"Work  of  re-  estate,  supervising  the  work  in  pro- 
storation  gress  there  ;  and  it  indicates  that  he 
was  in  residence  before  many  months,  with  a 
household  sufficiently  organized  for  some  enter- 
tainment of  guests.  His  mother  had  visited  him, 
and  he  could  write  to  her  of  what  he  was  doing 
in  a  manner  which  implies  her  personal  acquaint- 
ance with  the  place.  Until  November  in  this 
year  his  letters  to  his  mother  were  dated  simply 
from  Portage  ;  one  written  on  the  2d  of  October 
is  captioned  so.   But  the  next  letter,  of  Novem- 


GLEN    IRIS  47 

ber  6,  is  under  the  new  heading,  "  Glen  Iris, 
Portage,"  and  may  be  taken  to  mark,  approxi- 
mately, the  time  when  the  Glen  received  its 
name.  Seemingly  it  had  had  none  in  the  past. 
Only  the  river  and  its  falls  were  named ;  and 
they  were  but  part  of  what  that  cup  of  the  hills 
contained.  The  glen  in  its  wholeness  required 
a  geographical  designation,  and  the  suggestions 
for  it  were  plentiful,  no  doubt ;  but  the  aptest 
of  them  all  was  recommended  to  the  eye,  on 
every  sunlit  day,  by  the  rainbow-painted  mists 
which  rose  out  of  the  gorge  of  the  falls  to  per- 
fect the  whole  verdure  and  glory  of  the  scene. 
Glen  Iris  is  the  name  for  which  the  place  would 
seem  to  have  been  made. 

Development  of  the  beauty  of  the  Glen  was 
an  undertaking  of  careful  workmanship  in  Mr. 
Letchworth's  hands.  He  was  hasty  in  nothing; 
he  would  not  be  meddlesome  with  nature  ;  there 
was  study  in  all  that  he  did,  and  patience  to 
wait  on  slow  processes  of  vegetable  growth  for 
effects  which  surpass  the  artifices  of  man.  Yet 
the  change  he  wrought  upon  the  scene  came 
amazingly  fast.  His  earliest  visitors  appear  to 
have  felt  the  enchantments  of  the  place  as  pro- 
foundly as  any  can  feel  them  now,  despite  the 
scars  and  the  relics  of  rude  usage  which  long 


48     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

time  and  much  labor  were  needed  to  remove. 
The  writer  of  this  is  able  to  compare  impres- 
sions of  Glen  Iris  that  are  fifty  years  apart;  and 
it  is  only  by  a  reckoning  of  perfections  added 
and  flaws  subtracted  that  he  can  realize  in  his 
thought  of  it  a  greater  beauty  than  when  he  saw 
it  first. 

From  what  fashioning,  some  reader  may  ask, 
does  this  bit  of  the  earth  derive  so  rare  a  beauty 

»,  ,.     and  charm?  —  and  the  question  is 

lopograpnic  ^ 

features  of  not  answered  easily.  The  best  at- 
Glen  Iris  tempt  can  be  made,  perhaps,  by  of- 
fering to  imagination,  first,  the  bare  outlines  of 
a  topographical  sketch  of  this  part  of  the  valley 
of  the  Genesee,  and  overlaying  on  that  a  picture 
of  the  same  as  nature  had  vestured  it  and  as  a 
poet  described  it  some  thirty  and  more  years  ago. 
The  topographic  features  can  easily  be  set 
forth.  Their  axis  is  the  Genesee  River,  which 
traverses  the  western  part  of  the  State  of  New 
York  from  south  to  north,  emptying  its  waters 
into  Lake  Ontario,  near  the  city  of  Rochester, 
through  which  it  flows.  There  is  beauty  and 
great  fertility  in  the  Genesee  Valley  through- 
out ;  but  its  picturesqueness  is  developed  most 
remarkably  within  one  short  section,  hardly 
three  miles  in  length,  where  the  river  is  dropped 


GLEN    IRIS  49 

nearly  three  hundred  feet,  in  three  falls,  with 
intervening  rapids  and  pretty  cascades.  The 
first  or  Upper  Fall  is  near  a  village  which  re- 
ceived the  name  of  Portageville  in  early  days, 
when  there  was  some  carrying  trade  on  the 
river  and  some  necessary  land  portage  of  goods 
between  the  navigable  waters  above  and  below 
the  three  falls.  The  drop  of  the  river  in  this  Up- 
per Fall  is  seventy-one  feet.  Almost  overhang- 
ing it,  at  a  height  of  two  hundred  and  thirty- 
four  feet  above  the  level  from  which  it  drops, 
the  Erie  Railway  is  carried  over  the  Genesee  by 
a  great  bridge,  eight  hundred  feet  long.  This 
affords  a  measure  of  the  chasm  through  which 
the  river  is  brought  to  its  first  fall. 

Below  this  fall  the  river  is  still  confined 
narrowly  between  perpendicular  walls,  but  no 
longer  to  the  same  height.  The  crest  of  wall  is 
lowered  by  more  than  the  lowering  of  the  river 
bed  after  its  fall,  and  the  higher  tiers  of  the  previ- 
ous rock-enclosure  to  the  stream  are  pushed  back 
for  some  distance  and  transformed  into  sloping 
hills,  especially  on  the  western  side.  Thus  that 
which  is  a  gorge  above  this  fall  is  rimmed  below 
it  into  the  grace  and  beauty  of  a  glen  —  Glen 
Iris  ;  and  on  a  broad  plateau  that  overlooks 
the  river,  from  a  height  which  is  but  pleasing 


50     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

and  not  terrifying,  and  which  has  wooded  hills 
behind,  stands  the  modest  manor-house  of  the 
Glen.  It  overlooks  the  river  just  far  enough 
below  the  second  or  Middle  Fall  to  secure  the 
most  perfect  view  of  that  fine  cataract,  which 
makes  a  plunge  of  one  hundred  and  seven  feet. 

A  few  hundred  feet  below  the  Middle  Fall  [borrow- 
ing further  details  of  the  topography  from  an  accurate 
description  in  one  of  the  reports  of  the  American 
Scenic  and  Historic  Preservation  Society]  the  walls 
of  the  canyon  are  sheer  precipices  three  hundred  and 
fifty  feet  high  —  twenty  feet  higher  than  the  palisades 
of  the  Hudson  River  opposite  New  York  City  —  and 
on  top  of  the  rock  walls  the  land  on  the  right  and 
left  banks  rises  still  higher,  seventy-five  and  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  feet  respectively.  About  seventy-nine 
hundred  feet  from  the  Middle  Fall  are  the  Lower 
Falls,  an  irregular  set  of  cascades,  unevenly  worn  back, 
and  seventy  feet  high.  The  three  Portage  Falls  with 
their  intermediate  cascades  represent  a  total  descent 
of  about  two  hundred  and  ninety  feet.  Thence  the 
river  makes  a  great  semicircle  to  the  left,  sweeping 
by  the  High  Banks  and  continuing  through  the  chasm 
for  about  fourteen  miles  to  Mount  Morris,  where 
it  emerges  into  a  broad  alluvial  valley,  from  one  to 
two  miles  wide. 

Into  this  framework  of  fact  the  reader  may  be 
able  to  set  a  word-picture  of  Glen  Iris  sketched 


GLEN    IRIS  51 

by  the  late  David  Gray,  in  an  article  written  for 
Scribner  s  Monthly  Magazine^  July,  1877,  when 
he  was  editor  of  the  Buffalo  Courier,  a  poet's 
He  was  writing  of  what  was  to  him,  description 
undoubtedly,  the  dearest  spot  on  earth.  He 
pictures  it  as  seen  first  by  a  traveller  on  the  Erie 
Railway,  at  the  crossing  of  the  high  bridge, 
"when  the  summer  morning  has  come  over  the 
hills  and  filled  the  valley." 

Innumerable  lights  and  shades  of  the  varied  verdure, 
the  warm  tints  of  the  rocks  and  the  flashing  of  the 
fallen  waters  enliven  a  picture  to  which  its  sunken  re- 
moteness superadds  an  almost  visionary  charm.  The 
two  or  three  cottage  roofs  that  peer  from  thick  nests 
of  foliage  far  down  beside  the  river  suggest  a  life  bliss- 
fully held  apart  from  the  world  and  its  ways.  Over  all 
an  atmosphere  of  thinnest  mist,  smitten  to  whiteness 
by  the  sunlight,  wavers  and  shines  like  a  translucent 
sea.  The  valley,  indeed,  is  a  region  of  lapsing  streams 
and  delicate  rising  mists,  and  never  a  gleam  of  sun- 
shine visits  it  but  it  deserves  its  name  of  Glen  Iris. 

From  the  west  end  of  the  bridge  the  descent  into 
the  Glen  is  made  by  the  aid  of  flights  of  rustic  steps 
and  a  steep  path  through  thick  woods  of  beech,  maple, 
and  hemlock,  leading  to  the  margin  of  the  stream. 
Halfway  down,  and  crossed  by  a  footbridge,  a  little 
brook,  christened  by  the  valley  folk  De-ge-wa-nus, — 
an  Indian  name  of  note  along  the  Genesee,  —  dashes 


52     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

headlong  from  the  mysterious  green  darkness  of  the 
upper  forest,  and  commits  suicide  at  the  clifF  of  the 
river's  bank.  On  the  way,  too,  fine  views  are  afforded 
of  the  Upper  Fall  of  the  Genesee,  which  has  hewn  its 
way  backward  through  the  rock  almost  to  the  founda- 
tions of  the  great  bridge.  As  we  emerge  from  the  wood 
the  river  grows  quiet  again  among  its  stones,  and  the 
valley  widens  into  tranquil  pasture  lands.   .   .   . 

Ascending  the  slope  toward  the  farther  end  of  the 
valley,  we  come  in  sight  of  the  second  or  Middle  Fall, 
a  full,  rounded  shoulder  and  flounced  skirt  of  rock, 
over  which  the  water  is  flung  in  a  single  broad  shawl 
of  snow-white  lace,  more  exquisite  of  pattern  than 
ever  artist  of  Brussels  or  Valenciennes  dared  to  dream. 
On  a  green  tableland  almost  directly  above  this  fall  is 
the  dwelling  of  the  valley's  good  genius  —  a  rustic 
paradise  embowered  in  foliage  of  tree  and  vine,  and 
islanded  in  wavy  spaces  of  softest  lawn.  Here  art  has 
aided  nature  to  plant  a  true  "garden  of  tranquil  de- 
lights." Each  group  of  trees  becomes  the  cunning 
frame  of  an  enchanting  picture  or  beautiful  vignette. 
The  hills,  sentinelled  at  their  summits  by  lofty  pines, 
are  walls  which  shut  the  world  out,  while  across  the 
upper  and  sole  visible  approach  to  the  Glen,  the  bridge 
stretches  like  a  vast  portal  reared  by  Titans.  It  is  the 
Happy  Valley  of  fable  realized,  and  the  lulling  sound 
of  the  near  cataract  gives  fitting  voice  to  its  perfect 
seclusion  and  repose.   .   .  . 


GLEN    IRIS  53 

This  carries  Mr.  Gray's  description  to  the 
foot  of  Glen  Iris,  as  the  name  is  correctly  used. 
Going  on,  with  the  river,  down  the  deep  and 
winding  canyon  into  which  it  rushes,  below  Glen 
Iris  and  the  Middle  Fall,  he  wrote  further :  — 

Following  its  onward  course,  the  tourist  makes  his 
way  cautiously  along  the  dizzy  brink  of  the  westerly 
wall  of  the  gulf.  Higher  and  higher,  as  he  progresses, 
towers  the  perpendicular  rampart  on  which  he  treads, 
until  soon  it  is  from  a  sheer  height  of  about  four  hun- 
dred feet  that  he  leans,  shuddering,  to  descry  the  river 
in  its  rocky  inferno,  and  hearken  to  its  voice  softened 
by  distance  to  a  rustling  whisper.  About  a  mile  from 
the  Middle  Fall  the  gulf  partially  relaxes  its  hold  on 
the  brawling  prisoner,  and  the  visitor  may  make  his 
way  down  a  steep  and  thickly  wooded  bank  to  what 
are  called  the  Lower  Falls  of  the  Genesee.  Here,  in 
the  midst  of  a  wilderness  still  virgin  and  primeval,  the 
waters  shoot  furiously  down  a  narrow  rock-hewn  flume, 
their  descent  being  nearly  a  hundred  feet,  and  the  width 
of  the  torrent  at  some  points  scarcely  more  than  the 
compass  of  a  good  running  jump.  From  the  sombre 
chasm  in  which  the  cataract  terminates,  the  canyon 
once  more  draws  the  river  and  repeats  on  a  still  more 
magnificent  scale  the  scenery  at  which  I  have  hinted 
above.  A  walk  of  four  or  five  miles  down  the  river 
from  the  Lower  Fall,  and  along  the  westerly  battle- 
ment of  the  canyon,  brings  us  to  a  sudden  opening 


54     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

and  retrocession  of  the  rocky  walls,  and  here,  a  fertile 
expanse  of  bottom  land  extending  from  the  river  to  the 
hills,  are  the  Gardow  Flats,  the  ancient  home  of  "the 
White  Woman,"  —  of  whom  much  will  be  told  here- 
after. 

Something  of  a  defined  idea  of  Glen  Iris  may 
be  taken  from  these  descriptions,  and  something 
further  from  the  accompanying  photographic 
illustrations,  to  carry  in  the  mind  while  reading 
of  the  life  and  work  that  were  centred  princi- 
pally in  this  scene.  The  supremely  beautiful 
view  which  takes  in  the  Middle  and  Upper  Falls, 
looking  up  stream  from  a  point  some  distance 
below  the  Glen  Iris  residence,  was  made  the 
subject  of  a  painting,  seventy  years  ago,  by 
Thomas  Cole,  one  of  the  most  admired  of 
American  landscape  painters.  The  painting  was 
purchased  for  presentation  to  William  H.  Sew- 
ard, then  (1841)  Governor  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  and  now  hangs  in  the  home  of  his  son, 
at  Auburn,  New  York. 

All  that  he  had  expected  from  his  purchase 
of  the  Glen  was  assuredly  realized  to  Mr. 
Letchworth,  and  very  soon,  in  his  happy  home- 
making  for  himself  and  his  generous  opening  of 
its  delightful  hospitalities  to  his  friends.  Singly 
and  in  companies  he  called  them  often  and  in 


GLEN    IRIS  55 

numbers  to  share  with  him  the  fine  refresh- 
ments of  mind  and  body  that  were  in  its  gift. 
For  several  years,  beginning  in  i860,  his  asso- 
ciates of  "The  Nameless  Club"  were  sum- 
moned to  celebrate  the  Fourth  of  July  at  the 
Glen;  and  out  of  those  congenial  gatherings 
came  some  of  the  earliest  and  most  perfect 
of  the  many  poems  which  Glen  Iris,  poetical 
first  and  last,  has  inspired.  Possibly  "Voices  of 
it  would  be  an  extravagance  of  eulogy  *^®  ^^®^  " 
to  say  that  no  other  spot  in  America  has  been 
celebrated  equally  to  it  in  the  fervor  and  the 
quality  of  the  verse  it  has  called  out;  yet  search- 
ing criticism  might  uphold  that  suggestion,  on 
the  evidence  of  a  collected  volume  of  Glen  Iris 
verse  which  was  printed  under  the  title  of 
"Voices  of  the  Glen,"  in  1876,  and  of  which  a 
new  edition,  with  added  poems,  has  been  issued 
since  Mr.  Letchworth's  death  by  the  adminis- 
trator of  his  estate,  but  under  the  auspices  of 
the  American  Scenic  and  Historic  Preservation 
Society.  The  preparation  of  this  new  edition 
was  one  of  Mr.  Letchworth's  last  tasks,  and  the 
order  to  the  Knickerbocker  Press  for  the  print- 
ing of  it  was  given  only  five  days  before  he 
died. 

Inasmuch  as  nothing  said  in  cool  prose  can 


56     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

communicate  nearly  so  much  of  the  spirit  and 
influence  of  the  place  as  is  wrought  into  some 
of  these  lyric  strains,  it  will  be  fitting  to  cite  a 
few  of  them  here.  In  the  original  concert  of  the 
"Voices"  the  keynote  of  their  choral  singing 
was  given  by  James  Nicoll  Johnston,  and  he 
shall  lead  them  here,  in  — 

A  MEMORY 

Bright  summer  dream  of  white  cascade. 

Of  lake,  and  wood,  and  river! 
The  vision  from  the  eye  may  fade,  — 
The  heart  keeps  it  forever. 

There  beauty  dwells 

In  rarest  dells,  — 
There  every  leaf  rejoices; 

By  cliff  and  steep. 

By  crag  and  deep. 
You  hear  their  pleasant  voices. 

From  forest  flower  and  meadow  bloom. 

The  soft  wind,  passing  over. 
Brings  the  wild  roses'  fresh  perfume. 
The  sweet  breath  of  the  clover; 

And  odors  rare 

Pulse  through  the  air. 
In  waves  of  pleasure  flowing,  — 

We  dream  away 

The  passing  day. 
Regardless  of  its  going. 


GLEN   IRIS  57 

On  leafy  boughs  the  sunlight  glows. 

The  skies  are  blue  above  us. 
The  happy  laugh  that  comes  and  goes 
Is  from  the  friends  that  love  us. 

O !  bliss  combined 

Of  sense  and  mind. 
Rare  boon  to  mortals  given! 

Before  our  eyes 

Is  Paradise, 
Above  the  blue  is  heaven. 

Take,  Memory,  to  thy  choicest  shrine, 

And  guard  as  sacred  treasure. 
The  hours  of  ecstasy  divine. 
The  days  of  untold  pleasure. 
Though  many  a  scene 
May  come  between 
In  way  of  future  duty. 
We  still  shall  deem 
Our  summer  dream 
As  peerless  in  its  beauty. 

This  from  David  Gray  :  — 

TO  GLEN  IRIS 

\_Impromptu\ 

To  thee,  sweetest  valley!   Glen  Iris,  to  thee! 

More  fair  than  the  vision  of  poet  may  be. 

And  beyond  what  the  artist  may  dream,  when  his  eyes 

Are  dim  with  the  hues  of  the  loveliest  skies; 


58     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

To  thee  and  thy  forest,  whose  foliage  forever 

Is  fresh  with  the  mists  of  thy  light-flashing  river; 

Thy  flowers  that  are  swayed  in  the  softest  of  airs; 

Thy  birds  in  the  greenest  and  deepest  of  lairs; 

Thy  lights  and  thy  shadows,  thy  sweet  river's  fall 

That  sings  into  slumber  or  reverie,  all; 

To  thee,  though  our  lips  cannot  utter  a  word. 

Our  spirits  are  singing  in  rapture  unheard; 

For  'tis  part  of  thy  magic  —  thy  beauty- wrought  spell  — 

What  thou  whisperest  to  us  we  never  can  tell. 

Sweet  Glen  of  the  Rainbow,  to  thee  there  are  given. 

As  fresh  as  the  day  when  they  sprang  into  birth. 

All  the  joys  and  the  graces  we  love  most  of  earth. 

And  the  sunlight  flings  o'er  thee  the  glories  of  heaven. 

So  the  Nameless  now  drink  from  thy  pleasure-brimmed  chalice. 

And  pledge  thee  the  rainbow-ideal  of  valleys  — 

A  Beulah,  where  thrice  happy  mortals  that  see  thee 

Forget  all  their  care,  for  thy  waters  are  Lethe, 

And  we  shout  and  rejoice  that  thou  art  what  thou  art  — 

The  beautiful  home  of  a  beautiful  heart. 

This  from  Henry  R.  Howland:  — 

We  sat  on  the  lawn,  'neath  the  shade  of  the  trees. 

And  read  of  Ulysses,  far-sailing; 
Of  the  rare  lotus  lands,  mid  those  isles  of  the  seas. 

Whose  slumberous  joys  were  ne'er  failing; 
Yet  surely  the  odors  that  breathed  o'er  them  there. 

Their  dream-laden  pleasures  bestowing. 
Scarce  could  bring  to  the  heart  such  a  surcease  of  care 

As  our  Glen,  with  enchantment  o'erflowing; 


CO 

w 
o 

H 
< 

o 

s 

X 
H 


GLEN   IRIS  59 

For  soft-murmuring  waters,  and  odors  of  balm. 

Delights  of  the  eye  without  ceasing. 
Lull  our  senses  to  rest  with  their  magical  calm. 

Their  pure,  gentle  spell  ne'er  releasing; 
And  sweeter  than  songs  sung  by  sirens  of  old. 

Or  sea-fairies'  music  delighting. 
Are  the  voices  that  reach  us  from  river  and  wold 

To  new  blissful  pleasures  inviting  ; 
Yet  we  listen  and  hear  in  their  quiet  refrain 
The  song  of  the  sea-fairies  sung  o'er  again  — 
**  Who  can  light  on  so  happy  a  shore 
All  the  world  o'er,  all  the  world  o'er  ?  " 

This  from  Miss  Annie  R.  Annan  (Mrs.  Will- 
iam H.  Glenny) :  — 

O,  WHERE  DO  YOU  COME  FROM,  SUNSHINE 

SWEET  ? 

O,  where  do  you  come  from,  sunshine  sweet  ? 

For  dark  is  the  street,  — 
Blessing  my  eyes  with  a  swift  rare  gleam. 
Whose  light  and  shadow  all  mingled  seem 
Of  the  green  woods  and  the  white  of  spray,  — 

Yet  the  day  is  gray  ! 

And  whence  do  you  come,  O  haunting  rhyme  ? 

Unmeet  for  the  time  ; 
With  your  '*  Sweetest  eyes"  and  '*  The  Old  Canoe," 
Till  the  good  old  faith  again  seems  true  — 
Life  is  not  prose,  though  to  duties  wed; 

Nor  the  poets  dead. 


6o     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

I  am  the  ghost  of  the  sunshine  born 

At  the  Glen  one  morn  ; 
And  I,  the  echo  of  song  and  rhyme 
That,  dying  not  with  the  dying  time. 
Gives  life  the  rhythm  and  color  of  May  — 

Makes  the  day  less  gray. 

And  these  stanzas,  culled  from  a  "*  Name- 
less' Anniversary  Poem,"  by  Miss  Amanda  T. 
Jones:  — 

For  when  the  days  were  in  their  rosiest  bloom 

We  shook  away  the  dust  of  city  marts ; 

And  with  a  happy  sense  of  lightened  hearts. 
Let  fall  awhile  our  heavy  weights  of  gloom. 

Right  princely  was  our  welcome  to  the  wood. 

The  green-roofed  paths,  the  valley  and  the  flood. 
And  to  the  generous  board  and  tasteful  room  ! 

We  trod  the  dim  cool  windings  of  the  trail 
That  through  the  forest  led  to  sacred  nooks. 
Where  lightly  laughed  the  ever-raptured  brooks. 

And  the  mitchella  repens  blossomed,  pale 
From  love  of  shade  and  rich  excess  of  dew  ; 
Where  pulsed  the  bubbling  spring,  and  downward  threw. 

From  tiny  heights,  its  moss-entangled  veil. 

O  home  of  peace  !   O  cedar-bowered  land  — 
Glistening  Glen  Iris,  beautiful  as  heaven! 
O  cloven  hills,  by  flood  or  earthquake  riven! 

O  riotous  stream,  impetuous  and  grand! 


GLEN    IRIS  6i 

There  while  we  dwelt,  gay  laugh  and  mimic  feud 
Our  youth  revived,  our  childhood  half  renewed. 
And  knit,  forever  one,  our  songful  band. 

Mr.  Gray,  in  his  description  of  the  Glen,  speaks 
of  the  railway  bridge  as  stretching  "like  a  vast 
portal "  across  "  the  upper  and  sole  The  railway 
visible  approach "  to  it.  This  has  bridge 
reference  to  the  original  timber-built  bridge, 
which  was  a  wonderfully  effective  adjunct  of  the 
scenery,  filling,  as  it  did,  the  whole  opening  be- 
tween the  walls  of  the  river  by  the  lattice-like 
structure  of  its  timber  trestles,  and  seeming  to 
be  just  a  great  gate,  hung  with  no  other  design 
than  to  shut  out  the  external  world.  The  pre- 
sent light  structure  of  steel  has  nothing  of  that 
effect. 

The  old  bridge,  a  famous  piece  of  engineer- 
ing work  in  its  day,  and  said  to  have  contained 
the  entire  product  of  two  hundred  and  forty-six 
acres  of  pine  timber,  was  opened  to  use,  with  a 
good  deal  of  ceremony,  in  August,  1852.  It  was 
destroyed  by  fire  in  the  first  week  of  May,  1875. 
As  can  easily  be  imagined,  the  burning  of  this 
mighty  mass  of  pine  wood,  in  such  a  setting, 
offered  a  spectacle  that  may  never  have  had  its 
like,  and  which  few  were  privileged  to  see.  For- 
tunately, Mr.  Letchworth  was  one  of  the  few, 


62     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCH  WORTH 

and  he  wrote  an  account  of  it  for  the  Buffalo 
Courier.  The  fire  was  discovered  by  a  watchman 
at  the  bridge,  about  one  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing. It  was  not  until  three  hours  later  that  Mr. 
Letchworth  became  aware  of  it ;  but  it  had  then 
just  seized  the  whole  great  frame. 

I  was  aroused  from  sleep  [he  wrote]  at  ten  minutes 
to  four  o'clock,  and  in  a  iew  minutes  was  standing  on 
the  lawn  at  Glen  Iris,  from  which  point  every  portion 
of  the  bridge  was  visible,  as  well  as  the  Upper  Falls, 
the  river,  and  the  Middle  Falls.  The  spectacle  at  pre- 
cisely four  o'clock  was  fearfully  grand ;  every  timber 
in  the  bridge  seemed  then  to  be  ignited,  and  an  open 
network  of  fire  was  stretched  across  the  upper  end  of 
the  valley.  Above  the  bridge  and  touching  its  upper 
line  a  black  curtain  hung  down  from  the  sky,  its  lower 
edge  belted  with  a  murky  fringe  of  fire.  The  hoarse 
growl  of  the  flames  and  the  crackling  of  the  timbers 
sounded  like  a  hurricane  approaching  through  the  for- 
est. At  this  time  the  Upper  Falls  seemed  dancing  in  a 
silver  light.  The  water  in  the  river  was  glistening  with 
the  bright  glare  thrown  on  it,  and  the  whole  valley  of 
Glen  Iris  was  illuminated  with  tragic  splendor.  .  .  . 
At  fifteen  minutes  past  four  the  superstructure  of  the 
west  end  of  the  bridge  sank  downward,  and  the  de- 
pression rolled  throughout  its  length  to  the  east  end 
like  the  sinking  of  an  ocean  wave.  The  whole  upper 
structure,  including  the  heavy  T-rails,  went  down  with 


GLEN   IRIS  63 

a  crashing  sound.  .  .  .  Lighter  portions  of  the  frame- 
work still  remained.  .  .  .  Blazing  timber  still  continued 
to  fall  uninterruptedly,  and  the  rocks,  becoming  heated, 
exploded  in  loud  and  almost  continuous  bursts  of  sound. 
.  .  .  Burning  fragments  of  the  bridge  fell  all  about  the 
upper  end  of  the  valley,  covering  the  hill-sides.  .  .  . 
Probably  the  pine  groves  and  every  building  in  the 
Glen  Iris  Valley  would  have  been  destroyed  had  the 
leaves  of  the  woods  and  the  shingles  of  the  buildings 
been  dry,  —  but  they  had  been  dampened  by  a  recent 
rain. 

The  beauties  of  Glen  Iris  were  not  the  only 
gifts  that  nature  had  endowed  it  with,  and  which 
the  timely  interposition  of  Mr.  Letch-  g.^.^^  ^^^^j 
worth  saved  from  pillage  and  waste,  wild  plants 
Naturalists,  whose  eyes  went  search-  °^  ^®  ^^^^ 
ing  through  the  country  for  the  good  earth- 
mother's  caches  of  treasure,  found  many  things 
to  reward  them  in  this  glen,  even  while  it  was 
suffering  the  abuse  of  the  axemen  and  the  saw- 
yers of  the  devouring  mill.  After  it  came  under 
careful  protection  it  was  a  place  which  they  loved 
to  explore.  Judge  Clinton,  devotee  of  botany, 
came  often  from  Buffalo,  to  prowl  through  its 
woods  and  fields  and  fill  his  "  drum  "  with  rare 
or  choice  specimens  of  the  native  flora  of  New 
York.  Principal  E.  E.  Fish,of  the  Bufl?"alo  Pub- 


64     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

lie  School  No.  lo,  lover  and  student  of  birds 
and  plants,  was  similarly  attracted  to  the  Glen. 
In  1887  the  latter  contributed  to  one  of  the 
daily  newspapers  of  Buffalo  a  series  of  admir- 
able papers  on  "Birds  and  Flowers,"  one  of 
which  told  of  a  visit  to  Portage  that  spring  and 
of  what  was  found  there.  "  By  selecting  Port- 
age as  the  field  to  be  explored,"  he  said,  "  one 
was  sure  to  renew  the  acquaintance  of  many  of 
the  rarer  and  more  interesting  birds."  The  re- 
cital of  his  findings,  especially  in  "the  upper 
Letchworth  woods,"  fills  the  greater  part  of  two 
columns  of  interesting  chat,  in  the  course  of 
which  he  remarks  :  "Those  acquainted  with  this 
region  know  how  rich  and  varied  are  the  flora 
and  fauna.  Later  will  come  azaleas,  pyrolas, 
sweet-scented  crab,  several  species  of  winter- 
green,  including  the  beautiful  flowering  one 
with  purple  fringe,  Mitchella,  Clintonias,  or- 
chids, lady's  slipper,  fringed  gentian,  and  many 
others.  The  rare  and  interesting  birds  are 
equally  numerous.  Within  the  radius  of  a  hun- 
dred yards  I  have  found  the  nests  of  six  of  the 
different  species  of  thrushes." 

Recently  (in  1907),  since  the  gift  of  the  Glen 
Iris  property  to  the  State  of  New  York,  the 
head  gardener  of  the  New  York  Botanical  Gar- 


GLEN    IRIS  65 

den,  Mr.  George  V.  Nash,  was  delegated  to  visit 
the  ground  and  designate  a  number  of  the  most 

interesting  species  of  trees  for  label- 

.  .  Native  trees 

ling  with   their  botanical    and  pop- 
ular names.   In   his  report,  as  quoted    by  the 
American    Scenic    and    Historic     Preservation 
Society    in    its    thirteenth    annual    report,    he 
says : — 

The  object  of  my  visit  to  this  park  was  to  name 
and  have  properly  labelled  the  trees  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  roads  and  paths  which  Mr.  Letchworth  has  con- 
structed and  is  constructing  through  this  tract,  that 
the  public  may  have  easy  access  to  all  of  its  beauties. 
One  is  at  once  struck  here  by  the  purity  of  the  vege- 
tation. By  this  I  mean  the  almost  entire  absence  of 
plants  not  native  to  the  tract.  Even  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  house,  where  the  open  lawns 
would  permit  of  such  treatment,  but  few  extraneous 
species  are  to  be  found.  ...  It  is  plain  on  all  sides 
that  every  attempt  has  been  made  to  keep  things  as 
nature  made  them.  The  arboreal  vegetation  is  well 
represented,  and  in  one  region,  down  near  the  lower 
fall,  inaccessible  to  the  lumberman,  on  account  of  the 
precipitous  drop  on  one  side  and  the  raging  waters 
of  the  river  on  the  other,  are  some  large  trees,  perhaps 
representing  the  original  growth.  I  had  a  most  enjoy- 
able time  for  two  days  going  over  this  tract.  Of  course 
in  that  limited  period  it  was  not  possible  to  make  an 


66     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

exhaustive  study  of  the  trees,  my  operations  being 
confined  to  the  vicinity  of  paths.  But  here  a  large 
proportion  of  the  species  must  be  represented.  .  .  . 
It  would  be  an  interesting  work  to  prepare  a  list  of 
all  the  plants  growing  wild  within  the  confines  of  this 
park. 

In  the  forestry  of  his  Glen  Iris  estate,  during 
the  half-century  and  more  of  his  personal  care 
of  it,  Mr  Letchworth,  according  to  his  own  es- 
timate, planted  more  than  ten  thousand  trees. 

To  the  scientific  interest  attaching  to  the 
trees  in  the  Glen,  Mr.  Letchworth  added  a  per- 
Memorial  sonal  interest,  by  introducing,  in  dif- 
trees  ferent  parts  of   the    grounds,  many 

"memorial  trees,"  planted  by  relatives,  friends 
and  visitors  whose  names  he  wished  to  associate 
with  the  place.  Among  these  are  a  Kentucky- 
coffee  tree,  planted  by  Judge  George  W.  Clin- 
ton, son  of  Governor  De  Witt  Clinton,  —  one 
of  the  warmest  of  the  friends  of  Mr.  Letchworth 
and  of  the  lovers  of  the  Glen ;  a  white  oak 
planted  by  the  late  President  Martin  B.  Ander- 
son, of  Rochester  University,  —  a  specially  in- 
timate associate  of  Mr.  Letchworth  on  the  State 
Board  of  Charities;  an  elm  by  his  honored 
friend  James  O.  Putnam,  of  Buffalo;  a  tulip 
tree   by    F.   B.    Sanborn,  the   eminent    social 


GLEN    IRIS  67 

worker  of  Massachusetts  ;  a  sweet  gum  tree  by 
Mr.  S.  C.  Locke,  of  the  Charity  Organization 
Society  of  London,  England  ;  pine  trees  planted 
by  Sir  William  George  Johnson  and  Captain 
Charles  Johnson,  two  grandsons  of  Sir  Will- 
iam Johnson,  the  Loyalist  leader  in  New  York 
State  preceding  the  War  of  the  Revolution. 
One  group  of  trees  growing  near  the  old  In- 
dian Council  House  is  connected  in  interest 
with  the  holding  of  the  Last  Indian  Council 
on  the  Genesee,  of  which  some  account  will  be 
given  in  the  next  chapter.  They  were  planted 
on  the  day  of  that  ceremony,  and  spring  from 
roots  that  were  brought  from  the  graveyard 
where  Red  Jacket  and  Mary  Jemison,  the  cap- 
tive white  woman  of  the  Senecas,  were  buried. 
The  planting  of  one  of  these  was  performed 
by  Mrs.  Kate  Osborn,  a  descendant  of  Captain 
Brant,  assisted  by  Millard  Fillmore,  ex-Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  ;  another  was  placed 
in  the  earth  by  John  Jacket,  a  grandson  of  Red 
Jacket;  a  third  by  Thomas  Jemison,  grandson 
of  Mary  Jemison.  Other  trees  memorialize 
brothers,  sisters,  and  other  relatives  of  Mr. 
Letchworth,  or  close  friends,  such  as  James  N. 
Johnston,  David  Gray,  Henry  R.  Howland, 
and  others  ;  while  some  are  in  memory  of  his 


68     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

colleagues  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities.  A 
differently  interesting  tree  on  the  estate  is  of 
a  new  variety  of  hawthorn,  to  which  Professor 
Charles  S.  Sargent  gave  the  name  Crataegus 
Letchworthiana^  in  honor  of  the  master  of  Glen 
Iris. 

Practically,  Mr.  Letchworth  continued  to  be 
a  Buffalonian  to  the  end  of  his  life,  maintaining 
unimpaired  relations  with  the  city  and  all  of  its 
best  interests;  but  he  identified  himself,  never- 
theless, very  fully  and  closely  with  the  com- 
munities of  the  neighborhood  in  which  he  had 
now  planted  his  home.  He  took  pains  to  make 
acquaintance  with  his  new  neighbors ;  he  estab- 
lished understandings  with  the  local  authorities 
of  county  and  town,  and  became  cooperative 
with  them,  in  highway  and  other  improvements, 
securing  an  influence  that  was  soon  working 
good  effects  in  the  country  round. 

One  of  the  first  of  the  neighborhood  interests 
that  drew  his  attention  was  that  of  the  schools. 
Mr.  Letch-  ^^  early  as  the  nth  of  February, 
worth  and  i860,  we  find  him  in  correspondence 
the  schools    ^jj.j^  ^he  principal  of  the  Portageville 

and  Castile  Union  School,  arranging  for  a  pro- 
vision of  prizes,  in  books  and  silver  medals,  to 


GLEN    IRIS  69 

be  awarded  to  the  pupils  most  proficient  in 
penmanship,  arithmetic,  spelling,  composition, 
reading,  declamation,  grammar,  geography,  his- 
tory, philosophy,  chemistry  and  algebra.  Sub- 
sequently he  established  money  prizes  of  twenty 
and  fifteen  dollars  in  the  Genesee  Wesleyan 
Seminary,  to  be  awarded  yearly  for  "general 
scholarship."  In  1861,  on  the  2d  of  June,  he 
entertained  the  school-children  of  Portageville 
and  Pike  at  a  flag-raising  on  his  lawn.  He  vis- 
ited the  schools  at  intervals,  as  his  father  had 
done,  and  sought  in  many  ways  to  be  helpful  in 
stimulating  their  work.  Miss  Caroline  Bishop, 
who  became,  for  many  years,  his  secretary  and 
executive  assistant  at  Glen  Iris,  was  a  school- 
girl at  this  time,  attending  at  a  district  school- 
house  which  "stood  on  a  small  plateau  on  the 
bank  of  the  river"  at  some  distance  northward 
from  the  Glen  Iris  residence.  In  a  paper  writ- 
ten for  the  Wyoming  Historical  Pioneer  Asso- 
ciation, Miss  Bishop  has  told  of  Mr,  Letch- 
worth's  "frequent  visits "  to  that  school,  and  of 
the  many  useful  lessons  he  taught. 

Among  others  [she  says]  I  distinctly  recall  a  lesson 
on  the  use  of  the  word  "  awful,"  suggested  by  hearing 
from  the  lips  of  one  of  the  pupils  the  expression  "aw- 
ful cold";  and  a  lesson  which  he  gave  us  in  geogra- 


70     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

phy,  by  drawing  on  the  blackboard  a  map  of  Wyoming 
County  with  its  sixteen  townships  represented  and  the 
Genesee  River  forming  a  portion  of  the  boundary  on 
the  eastern  side.  With  the  questions  and  explanations 
that  followed  we  soon  began  to  realize  that  Wyoming 
County  was  one  of  the  geographical  divisions  of  the 
earth,  and  that  our  playground  and  our  fathers'  farms 
formed  a  part  of  the  subject  which  before  had  seemed 
far  off  and  difficult  to  understand.  He  provided  for 
our  enjoyment  and  instruction  books  of  melodies  de- 
signed especially  for  children,  and  placed  in  the  school 
room  for  our  benefit  a  new  cabinet  organ  of  Prince  & 
Co.'s  manufacture.  When  the  old  school  house  be- 
came too  dilapidated  for  use  in  winter  he  prepared  for 
us  a  comfortable  and  attractive  room  in  a  building 
which  stood  near  the  entrance  to  the  Glen  Iris  grounds. 
He  invited  us  to  his  home  and  prepared  entertainments 
for  us,  and  stimulated  our  ambition,  as  well  as  that  of  the 
pupils  of  the  Castile  and  Portageville  schools,  by  prizes 
which  he  repeatedly  offered  for  good  conduct,  proficiency 
in  spelling  and  reading,  and  the  greatest  progress  made 
during  a  specified  time  in  penmanship  and  mathematics. 

Miss  Bishop  adds:  — 

His  interest  in  the  welfare  of  young  persons  was  not 
confined  to  children  in  the  schools.  In  one  of  the 
bank  pass  books  is  a  considerable  list  of  items  —  each 
five  dollars  —  paid  to  newsboys  and  boys  in  orphan 
asylums  who  had  started  a  bank  account. 


GLEN    IRIS  71 

As  he  showed  in  the  devotion  of  his  later  life 
to  work  for  them,  children  were,  to  him,  the 
most  precious  possessions  of  the  world,  and  the 
objects  of  the  most  sacred  responsibility.  From 
his  first  acquisition  of  Glen  Iris,  as  will  be  shown 
later,  he  was  planning  to  make  it  a  gift  to  child- 
ren in  the  future,  —  a  bit  of  Paradise  in  which 
large  companies  of  them,  for  many  generations, 
might  have  a  rearing,  a  health  and  a  happiness 
of  life  which  their  parental  homes  could  not 
afford  to  them.  It  was  not  with  self-indulgent 
designs  that  Glen  Iris  was  so  eagerly  sought,  so 
perseveringly  acquired,  so  laboriously  made  what 
it  came  to  be  in  his  hands. 


CHAPTER  III 

PRESERVING    THE    MEMORIALS    OF    GENESEE 
VALLEY    HISTORY 

The  valley  of  the  Genesee,  especially  in  the 
middle  region  which  embraces  Glen  Iris,  has  a 
remarkably  interesting  early  history,  from  the 
time  of  the  white  man's  first  acquaintance  with 
it  until  he  took  it  from  the  red  man  and  made 
it  his  own.  It  was  the  seat  of  the  Seneca  Nation, 
the  westernmost  of  the  tribes  of  the  Iroquois 
Confederacy ;  and  the  Senecas  were  active  allies 
of  the  British  and  the  Tories  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary War.  Events  connected  with  that  war, 
especially  with  Sullivan's  expedition  against  the 
Senecas,  in  1779,  and  subsequently  with  the  buy- 
ing of  the  Seneca  lands  and  the  removal  of  the 
tribe  from  the  region,  put  the  stamp  of  historic 
interest  on  many  places  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Mr.  Letchworth's  home.  They  engaged  his  at- 
tention, and  led  him  to  an  interest  in  Indian 
history  which  he  does  not  seem  to  have  felt 
before.  He  was  troubled  on  finding  that  relics 
and  mementos  of  the  aboriginal  possessors  of 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY         73 

the  valley,  still  existing,  were  treated  with  neg- 
lect and  were  fast  disappearing.  As  soon  as  he 
became  free,  in  some  degree,  from  immediately 
pressing  demands  on  him,  he  made  it  part  of 
his  public  duty  to  repair  this  neglect,  to  the  ex- 
tent that  he  could  do  so,  by  action  of  his  own 
and  by  cooperation  with  others  of  like  mind.  In 
these  undertakings  he  had  much  encouragement 
and  stimulation  from  some  of  his  closer  friends, 
especially  William  C.  Bryant,  Henry  R.  How- 
land  and  O.  H.  Marshall,  who  shared  his  inter- 
est in  Indian  history. 

The  most  interesting  historical  relic  in  the 
Genesee  Valley  was  the  ancient  Council  House 

of  the  Seneca  Nation,  which  stood 

1  -1  -I       r  ^1        T  •       "T^®  ancient 

about  eighteen  miles  from  Lrlen  Ins,   seneca 

in  the  village  of  Caneadea.  For  many  Council 
years  after  the  Senecas  left  the  Gene- 
see Country  this  building,  of  hewn  logs,  which 
had  been  their  parliament  house,  —  their  capi- 
tol,  —  supplied  a  habitation  to  the  white  farmer 
who  tilled  the  surrounding  land.  It  had  long 
been  out  of  use,  however,  and  was  falling  into 
decay,  when  Mr.  Letchworth,  in  the  fall  of  1 871, 
acquired  title  to  it  and  had  it  removed,  for  pre- 
servation, to  his  own  grounds.  It  was  an  antiq- 
uity when  the  first  white  settlers  came  into  the 


74     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCH  WORTH 

valley,  and  tradition  had  preserved  little  more 
of  its  history  than  the  fact  that  it  had  long  been 
the  rendezvous  of  the  nation,  for  councils,  for 
the  planning  and  preparation  of  warlike  expe- 
ditions and  for  festive  celebrations  of  victory. 
According  to  some  opinions  it  saw  the  starting 
and  the  return  of  the  Seneca  war-party  which 
had  to  do  with  what  is  known  as  the  massacre 
of  Wyoming.  From  a  little  volume  published 
many  years  ago  in  western  New  York,  recount- 
ing the  life  and  adventures  of  Major  Moses  Van 
Campen,  who  won  renown  in  the  Revolutionary 
War,  the  following  incident  connected  with  this 
council  house  was  derived  by  Mr.  Gray,  in  the 
article  already  referred  to  :  — 

In  the  spring  of  1782,  Van  Campen,  then  a  young 
officer  in  the  Continental  army,  was  captured  on  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Susquehanna  by  a  party  of  Iro- 
quois in  command  of  a  British  lieutenant.  Narrowly 
escaping  the  usual  death  of  prisoners  by  torture,  he 
and  several  of  his  soldiers  were  led  by  forced  marches 
through  the  forest  to  Caneadea.  Their  arrival  was  the 
occasion  of  a  savage  jubilee,  and  the  amiable  villagers 
straightway  demanded  for  themselves  the  customary 
privilege  of  causing  the  captives,  in  Iroquois  fashion, 
to  run  the  gauntlet.  The  course  selected  was  about 
forty  rods  in  length,  and  the  council  house,  as  was 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY         75 

usual  on  such  occasions,  was  designated  as  the  goal 
and  place  of  refuge  of  the  runners.  Close  behind  them 
and  on  each  side  of  their  path  crowded  the  population 
of  the  village,  young  and  old,  and  of  both  sexes,  armed 
with  cudgels  and  long  whips,  the  warriors  alone  re- 
maining dignified  spectators  of  the  scene.  The  signal 
was  given,  and  the  indomitable  Van  Campen  darted 
ofF  first,  as  nimble  as  a  deer.  The  armed  mob  closed 
quickly  upon  him,  and  his  case  would  have  been  de- 
sperate but  for  a  bold  coup  to  which  he  had  resort. 
Directly  in  his  track  stood  two  stout  young  squaws, 
waiting  their  chance  to  strike  the  captive.  Squarely  at 
them,  as  if  shot  from  a  catapult,  he  threw  himself,  and 
with  such  effect  that  both  were  pitched  headlong,  and 
described  several  somersaults  on  their  way  to  the  ground. 
The  absurd  spectacle  was  too  much,  alike  for  Indian 
dignity  and  ferocity,  and,  amidst  yells  of  uncontrol- 
lable laughter  on  the  part  of  the  crowd,  the  captives 
made  their  way  easily  to  the  council  house. 

Another  mention  in  the  scant  chronicles  of  the  fron- 
tier contributes  still  further  to  render  Caneadea  classic. 
It  was  the  place  where  Mary  Jemison,  "the  White 
Woman  of  the  Genesee,"  a  name  famous  in  the  early 
annals  of  western  New  York,  halted  for  a  day  to  rest 
in  her  weary  pilgrimage  to  the  Genesee  Country. 

Something  of  the  Interesting  story  of  this 

woman  will  appear  later  in  the  present  chapter. 

In  Mr.  Letchworth's  rescue  of  the  ancient 


76     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

Council  House  of  the  Senecas  from  destruction, 
by  removing  it  from  Caneadea  to  Glen  Iris,  it 
hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  the  removal  was 
effected  with  "almost  religious  care,"  —  using 
the  words  of  Mr.  Gray.  At  Glen  Iris  "the  tim- 
bers, duly  marked,  were  reerected  in  precisely 
their  ancient  order,  and  the  edifice,  carefully 
and  exactly  restored  to  its  original  condition, 
may  easily  survive  another  century."  It  is  of 
the  customary  form  of  the  "  long  house  "  of  the 
Iroquois  —  about  fifty  feet  in  length  by  twenty 
in  width.  "The  walls  of  the  Glen  Iris  edifice, 
formed  of  pine  logs,  smoothly  hewn  and  neatly 
dove-tailed  at  the  corners,  are  carried  up  to  the 
height  of  twelve  or  thirteen  feet,  without  win- 
dows, the  only  openings  in  the  original  building 
having  been  two  doors,  opening  to  west  and 
east  respectively,  and  two  smoke  vents  near  the 
centre  of  the  roof.  The  roof-covering  is  of  split 
'shakes'  [large  split  shingles]  secured  by  trans- 
verse poles,  which,  again,  are  fastened  at  each 
end  by  twisted  withes." 

Having  restored  to  its  historic  dignity  this 
primitive  parliament-house  of  an  extinct  nation. 
The  last  In-  M^-  Letchworth  was  fortunately  able 
dian  council  to  attach  a  new  distinction  to  it  and 
a  final  memory,  by  bringing  about,  on  the  ist 


'Ji 

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GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY         77 

of  October,  1872,  a  remarkable  assembly  of 
representative  Senecas  and  Mohawks,  descend- 
ants from  famous  chiefs  and  notable  personages 
in  Indian  history,  to  light  once  more  the  coun- 
cil fire  in  the  ancient  hall,  and  sit  round  it  in 
grave  exchange  of  speech,  as  in  the  ancient 
days.  These  two  nations  of  the  Iroquois  Con- 
federacy had  been  estranged  from  one  another 
since  the  War  of  1812,  when  the  Mohawks, 
settled  in  Canada,  were  in  arms  for  the  British, 
and  were  met  in  battle  by  the  Senecas,  who 
fought  on  the  American  side.  The  enmity  then 
kindled  had  never  quite  been  extinguished, 
and  it  was  not  without  some  difficulty  that  their 
leading  people  were  now  brought  together,  to 
give  a  reconciliatory  significance  to  this  "  Last 
Indian  Council  on  the  Genesee." 

The  Indians  who  came  were  nineteen  in  num- 
ber, of  men,  and  they  were  accompanied  by  sev- 
eral women,  who  took  no  part,  of  course,  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  day.  The  Mohawk  Nation 
sent  a  single  male  representative.  Colonel  Sim- 
coe  Kerr;  but  he,  grandson  of  the  famous 
Joseph  Brant,  and  great-grandson  of  Sir  William 
Johnson,  was  not  only  the  highest  of  Mohawk 
chiefs,  but  looked  up  to  by  all  of  Indian  blood 
in  Canada  as  their  foremost  man.    His  sister, 


78     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

Mrs.  Osborn,  came  with  Colonel  Kerr.  Among 
the  Senecas  present  were  grandsons  of  Red 
Jacket  and  Cornplanter,  —  the  two  chiefs  of 
greatest  renown  in  such  part  of  Seneca  history 
as  connects  with  that  of  the  whites,  —  and  two 
grandsons  of  "the  white  woman,"  Mary  Jemi- 
son.  One  of  these  latter,  Thomas  Jemison, 
bore  her  name,  while  the  other,  James  Shongo, 
had  that  of  "Colonel  Shongo,"  who  is  thought 
to  have  been  a  leading  actor  in  the  tragedy  of 
Wyoming.  Other  notables  of  the  assembled 
Council  were  Nicholas  H.  Parker,  a  grand- 
nephew  of  Red  Jacket  and  brother  of  General 
Ely  S.  Parker,  who  served  on  the  staff  of  Gen- 
eral Grant  in  the  Civil  War;  William  Black- 
snake,  whose  grandfather,  known  as  "  Governor 
Blacksnake,"  lived  on  the  Alleghany  Reserv- 
ation to  be  considerably  more  than  a  century 
old,  and  William  and  Jesse  Tallchief,  whose 
grandfather,  Tallchief,  had  his  home  at  Murray 
Hill,  near  Mount  Morris,  and  was  highly  es- 
teemed. 

The  account  which  follows,  of  incidents  and 
speeches  at  the  Council,  is  quoted  from  an  inter- 
esting paper  contributed  to  the  publications  of 
the  Buffalo  Historical  Society  (volume  vi)  by 
Mr.  Henry  R.  Howland,  who  was  present,  as 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY  79 

one  of  the  guests  of  Mr.  Letchworth,  and  who 
wrote  from  notes  made  at  the  time:  — 


Some  of  the  invited  guests  had  come  on  the  pre- 
vious day,  and  when  the  morning  train  arrived  from 
Buffalo  the  old  King  George  cannon  on  the  upper 
plateau  thundered  its  welcome,  as  once  it  was  wont 
to  wake  the  echoes  from  the  fortress  of  Quebec,  and 
all  climbed  the  hill  to  the  spot  where  the  ancient 
Council  House  stood  with  open  doors  to  receive 
them.  They  were  the  lookers  on  who  found  their 
places  at  one  end  of  the  council  hall,  where  rustic  seats 
awaited  them,  save  that  in  a  suitable  and  more  digni- 
fied chair  was  seated  the  former  President  of  the  Re- 
public, Hon.  Millard  Fillmore,  whose  gracious  and 
kindly  presence  —  that  of  a  snowy-haired  gentleman 
of  the  old  school  —  honored  the  occasion. 

The  holders  of  the  council  were  "robed  and  ready." 
Upon  the  clay  floor  in  the  centre  of  the  building 
burned  the  bright  council  fire,  and  as  the  blue  smoke 
curled  upward  it  found  its  way  through  the  opening  in 
the  roof  to  mingle  with  the  haze  of  the  October  day. 
Upon  low  benches  around  the  fire  sat  the  red-skinned 
children  of  the  Ho-de-no-sau-nee  [People  of  the 
Long  House]  who  had  gathered  from  the  Cattaraugus 
and  the  Allegheny  and  from  the  Grand  River  in 
Canada  as  well ;  for  on  that  day,  for  the  first  time  in  more 
than  seventy  years,  the  Mohawks  sat  in  council  with  the 
Senecas.  They  were  for  the   most  part  clad  in  such 


8o     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 


costumes  as  their  fathers  wore  in  the  olden  days,  and 
many  of  the  buckskin  garments,  bright  sashes  and 
great  necklaces  of  silver  or  bone  and  beads,  were 
heirlooms  of  the  past,  as  were  the  ancient  tomahawk 
pipes  which  were  gravely  smoked,  while  their  owners 
sat  in  rapt  and  decorous  attention  as  one  after  another 
their  orators  addressed  them.  No  sight  could  be  more 
picturesque.  .  .  .  Colonel  Kerr  .  .  .  wore  the 
chieftain's  dress  in  which  he  had  been  presented  to 
Queen  Victoria:  a  suit  of  soft,  dark,  smoke-tanned 
buckskin  with  deep  fringes,  a  rich  sash,  and  a  cap  of 
doeskin  with  long,  straight  plumes  from  an  eagle's 
wing.  He  carried  Brant's  tomahawk  in  his  belt.  .  .  . 
For  a  short  time  these  children  of  time-honored 
sachems  and  chiefs  sat  and  smoked  in  dignified  silence, 
as  became  so  grave  an  occasion,  and  when  the  proper 
moment  had  arrived,  as  prescribed  by  the  decorum  of 
Indian  observance,  one  of  their  number  arose  and,  fol- 
lowing the  ceremonial  method  of  the  ancient  custom, 
announced  in  formal  words  and  in  the  Seneca  tongue 
that  the  council  fire  had  been  lighted,  and  that  the 
ears  of  those  who  were  convened  in  council  were  now 
opened  to  listen  to  what  might  be  said  to  them.  Re- 
suming his  seat,  there  was  a  moment  of  quiet  waiting, 
as  if  in  expectation,  and  then  the  opening  speech  was 
made  by  Nicholson  H.  Parker,  Ga-yeh-twa-geh.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Parker  was  a  tall,  well-built  man,  with  a  fine  clear 
face  not  unlike  that  of  his  distinguished  brother.  Around 
his  sleeves  above  the  elbows  and  at  the  wrists  were 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY  8i 

wide  bands  of  beaded  embroidery,  and,  besides  a  long- 
fringed  woven  belt  of  bright  colors,  he  wore  an  ample 
shoulder  scarf  that  was  also  richly  embroidered.  His 
tomahawk  pipe  was  one  that  had  belonged  to  Red 
Jacket.  Mr.  Parker  was  a  well  educated  man,  had 
served  as  United  States  interpreter  with  his  people, 
and  was  a  recognized  leader  among  them. 

All  of  the  speeches  made  in  the  council  that  day, 
until  it  approached  its  close,  were  in  the  Seneca  lan- 
guage, which  is  without  labials,  very  guttural,  and  yet 
with  a  music  of  its  own,  capable  of  much  inflection 
and  by  no  means  monotonous.  Its  sentences  seemed 
short  and  their  utterance  slow  and  measured,  with  many 
evidences  of  the  earnest  feeling  aroused  by  the  un- 
wonted occasion  and  its  associations  with  the  past, 
and,  as  each  speaker  in  turn  touched  some  responsive 
chord  in  the  breasts  of  his  hearers,  they  responded  with 
that  deep  guttural  ejaculation  of  approval  which  can- 
not be  written  in  any  syllable  of  English  phrasing. 
Many  of  the  orators  spoke  at  great  length,  and  it  is 
unfortunate  that  the  full  texts  could  not  be  preserved. 
Such  portions  as  we  have  of  three  or  four  of  the  prin- 
cipal speeches  were  taken  down  after  the  council  from 
the  lips  of  the  speakers  themselves ;  they  are,  however, 
but  brief  epitomes  of  their  full  orations. 

The  reported  part  of  Nicholson  Parker's 
speech  shows  it  to  have  been  full  of  dignity 
and  eloquent  feeling,  most  appropriate  to  the 


82     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

occasion  and  the  place.    He  ended  it  by  say- 
ing: — 

Brothers,  we  are  holding  council,  perhaps  for  the 
last  time,  in  Jenisheu  [the  native  form  of  the  name 
Genesee,  signifying  "The  Beautiful  Valley"].  This 
beautiful  territory  was  once  our  own.  The  bones  of 
our  fathers  are  strewn  thickly  under  its  sod.  But  all 
this  land  has  gone  from  their  grasp  forever.  The  fate 
and  the  sorrows  of  my  people  should  force  a  sigh  from 
the  stoutest  heart. 

Brothers,  we  came  here  to  perform  a  ceremony,  but 
I  cannot  make  it  such.  My  heart  says  that  this  is  not 
a  play  or  a  pageant.  It  is  a  solemn  reality  to  me,  and 
not  a  mockery  of  days  that  are  past  and  can  never  re- 
turn.   Neh-hoh  —  this  is  all. 

Thomas  Jemison,  or  Sho-son-do-want,  spoke 
with  the  same  gravity,  but  in  a  somewhat  less 
saddened  tone. 

I  am  an  old  man  [he  said],  and  well  remember  when 
our  people  lived  in  this  valley.  I  was  born  in  a  wig- 
wam on  the  banks  of  this  river.  I  well  remember  my 
grandmother,  "  The  White  Woman,"  of  whom  you 
have  all  heard.  I  remember  when  our  people  were 
rich  in  lands  and  respected  by  the  whites.  Our  fathers 
knew  not  the  value  of  these  lands,  and  parted  with 
them  for  a  trifle.  The  craft  of  the  white  man  prevailed 
over  their  ignorance  and  simplicity.    We  have  lost  a 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY  83 

rich  inheritance ;  but  it  is  vain  to  regret  the  past.   Let 
us  make  the  most  of  what  little  is  left  to  us. 

Nevertheless  his  thoughts  went  back  to  the 
days  of  Iroquois  power,  and  carried  him  into 
some  briefly  retrospective  remarks,  which  he 
closed  by  saying:  — 

Brothers,  these  are  painful  thoughts.  It  is  painful 
to  think  that  in  the  course  of  two  generations  there 
will  not  be  an  Iroquois  of  unmixed  blood  within  the 
bounds  of  our  State  ;  that  our  race  is  doomed,  and  that 
our  language  and  history  will  soon  perish  from  the 
thoughts  of  men.  But  it  is  the  will  of  the  Great  Spirit, 
and  doubtless  it  is  well. 

Most  picturesque  of  all  who  lingered  around  that 
dying  council  fire  [says  Mr.  Howland]  was  the  figure 
of  old  Solomon  O'Bail,  "  Ho-way-no-ah,"  the  grand- 
son of  that  wisest  of  Seneca  chiefs,  John  O'Bail,"  Ga- 
yant-hwah-geh,"  better  known  as  Cornplanter.  His 
strong,  rugged  face,  deeply  seamed  with  the  furrows 
of  advancing  age,  was  typical  of  his  race  and  of  his 
ancestry,  and  was  expressive  of  a  remarkable  charac- 
ter. His  dress  was  of  smoke-tanned  buckskin  with 
side  fringes,  and  all  a-down  his  leggings  were  fastened 
little  hawk-bells,  which  tinkled  as  he  walked.  Shoulder- 
sash  and  belt  were  embroidered  with  oldtime  beadwork, 
and  around  his  arm  above  the  elbows  were  broad  bands 
or  armlets  of  silver.  From  his  ears  hung  large  silver 
pendants  and,  strangest  of  all  his  decorations,  deftly 


84     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

wrought  long  ago  by  some  aboriginal  silversmith,  was 
a  large  silver  nose-piece  that  almost  hid  his  upper  lip. 
His  headdress  was  an  heirloom  made  of  wild-turkey 
feathers  fastened  to  the  cap  with  such  cunning  skill 
that  they  turned  and  twinkled  with  every  movement  of 
his  body. 

He  had  been  an  attentive  listener  to  all  who  had 
spoken,  and  as  the  memories  of  the  past  were  awak- 
ened, the  significance  of  the  occasion  filled  his  heart 
and  the  expression  of  his  honest  face  showed  that  he 
was  deeply  moved.  Especially  significant  to  him  was 
the  presence  at  this  council  fire  of  the  Mohawk  chief, 
Colonel  Kerr,  and  the  burden  of  his  soul  was  that  the 
broken  friendship  of  the  League  should  be  once  more 
restored.  His  speech  was  the  most  dramatic  incident 
of  the  day.    It  ended  with  these  words  :  — 

"  In  the  last  war  with  England  the  Mohawks  met 
us  as  foes  on  the  warpath.  For  seventy-five  years  their 
place  has  been  vacant  at  our  council  fires.  They  left 
us  when  we  were  strong,  a  nation  of  warriors,  and  they 
left  us  in  anger.  Brothers,  we  are  now  poor  and  weak. 
There  are  none  who  fear  us  or  court  our  influence. 
We  are  reduced  to  a  handful,  and  have  scarce  a  place 
to  spread  our  blankets  in  the  vast  territory  owned  by 
our  fathers.  But  in  our  poverty  and  desolation  our 
long-estranged  brothers,  the  Mohawks,  have  come  back 
to  us.  The  vacant  seats  are  filled  again,  although 
the  council  fire  of  our  nation  is  little  more  than  a 
heap  of  ashes.  Let  us  stir  its  dying  embers,  that  by 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY         85 

their  light  we  may  see  the  faces  of  our  brothers  once 
more. 

"  Brothers,  my  heart  is  gladdened  by  seeing  a  grand- 
son of  that  great  chief  Thay-en-dan-ega-ga-onh  [Cap- 
tain Brant]  at  our  council  fire.  His  grandfather  often 
met  our  fathers  in  council  when  the  Six  Nations  were 
one  people  and  were  happy  and  strong.  In  grateful 
remembrance  of  that  nation  and  that  great  warrior, 
and  in  token  of  buried  enmity,  I  will  extend  my  hand 
to  our  Mohawk  brother.  May  he  feel  that  he  is  our 
brother  and  that  we  are  brethren." 

The  Indian  character  is  reticent  and  hides  the  out- 
ward evidence  of  deep  feeling  as  unmanly ;  but  as  the 
aged  man  spoke  the  tears  rolled  down  his  furrowed 
cheeks,  and  as  he  turned  and  held  out  his  beseeching, 
friendly  hand  to  the  haughty  Mohawk,  strong  ejacul- 
ations of  approval  broke  from  the  lips  of  all  his  dusky 
brethren.  With  visible  emotion  Colonel  Kerr  arose 
and  warmly  grasped  the  outstretched  palm.  "  My 
brother,"  said  he,  "  I  am  glad  to  take  your  hand,  once 
more  held  out,  in  the  clasp  of  friendship  ;  the  Senecas 
and  the  Mohawks  now  are  both  my  people."  "  My 
brother,"  said  O'Bail,  "  may  the  remembrance  of  this 
day  never  fade  from  our  minds  or  from  the  hearts  of 
our  descendants." 

As  speaker  after  speaker  had  addressed  the  council, 
the  hours  slipped  swiftly  by,  and  only  the  embers  of 
the  fire  still  glowed,  when,  at  a  pause  towards  the 
close,  there  came  a  surprise  for  all  who  were  present, 


86     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

as  one  of  the  palefaced  guests  quietly  arose  and,  step- 
ping to  the  circle  of  redskinned  orators,  spoke  to  them 
in  their  own  tongue.  It  was  the  tall  figure  of  Orlando 
Allen  of  Buffalo,  then  in  his  seventieth  year,  who  ad- 
dressed the  Council.  Mr.  Allen,  who  came  to  Buffalo 
when  a  boy,  had  had  much  to  do  with  the  Senecas  of 
the  neighboring  reservation  in  his  early  years,  and  ac- 
quired then  a  command  of  their  language  which  he 
had  not  wholly  lost.  Using  it  now  in  a  few  words  of 
greeting  and  introduction  he  turned  to  English  speech, 
and  gave  interesting  reminiscences  of  the  Senecas  of 
the  last  generation  whom  he  had  known. 

When  Mr.  Allen  had  ended  his  interesting  address, 
President  Fillmore,  with  a  few  kindly  words,  presented, 
on  behalf  of  Mr.  Letchworth,  a  specially  prepared  sil- 
ver medal  to  each  of  those  who  had  taken  part  in  the 
council.  .  .  .  This  ceremony  ended,  Nicholson  Parker, 
who  made  the  opening  speech,  arose,  and  in  a  few 
words,  gravely  and  softly  spoken  in  his  native  tongue, 
formally  closed  the  council.  Then  turning  to  the  white 
guests,  whom  he  addressed  as  his  younger  brothers,  he 
spoke  the  farewell  words  —  ending  thus  ;  "  The  H6- 
de-no-sau-nee,  the  People  of  the  Long  House,  are  scat- 
tered hither  and  yon ;  their  league  no  longer  exists, 
and  you  who  are  sitting  here  to-day  have  seen  the  last 
of  the  confederated  Iroquois.  We  have  raked  the  ashes 
over  our  fire  and  have  closed  the  last  council  of  our 
people  in  the  valley  of  our  fathers."  As  he  ended,  his 
voice  faltered  with  an  emotion  which  was  shared  by  all 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY  87 

present.  He  had  spoken  the  last  words  for  his  people, 
fraught  with  a  tender  pathos  that  touched  the  hearts 
of  those  who  heard  him  with  a  feeling  of  that  human 
brotherhood  in  which,  "  whatever  may  be  our  color  or 
our  gifts,"  we  are  all  alike  kin. 

For  a  few  moments  there  was  a  becoming  silence, 
and  then  David  Gray  —  name  beloved  of  all  who 
knew  him  —  the  poet-editor  of  the  "  Buffalo  Courier," 
rose  and  read 

THE    LAST   INDIAN    COUNCIL    ON  THE 

GENESEE 

The  fire  sinks  low;  the  drifting  smoke 

Dies  softly  in  the  autumn  haze. 
And  silent  are  the  tongues  that  spoke 

The  speech  of  other  days. 
Gone,  too,  the  dusky  ghosts  whose  feet 

But  now  yon  listening  thicket  stirred; 
Unscared  within  its  covert  meet 

The  squirrel  and  the  bird. 

The  story  of  the  past  is  told; 

But  thou,  O  Valley,  sweet  and  lone,  — 
Glen  of  the  rainbow,  —  thou  shalt  hold 

Its  romance  as  thine  own! 
Thoughts  of  thine  ancient  forest  prime 

Shall  sometimes  tinge  thy  summer  dreams. 
And  shape  to  low  poetic  rhyme 

The  music  of  thy  streams. 


88     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

When  Indian  Summer  flings  her  cloak 

Of  brooding  azure  on  the  woods. 
The  pathos  of  a  vanished  folk 

Shall  haunt  thy  solitudes. 
The  blue  smoke  of  their  fires,  once  more. 

Far  o'er  the  hills  shall  seem  to  rise. 
And  sunset's  golden  clouds  restore 

The  red  man's  paradise. 

Strange  sounds  of  a  forgotten  tongue 

Shall  cling  to  many  a  crag  and  cave. 
In  wash  of  fallen  waters  sung. 

Or  murmur  of  the  wave. 
And,  oft,  in  midmost  hush  of  night. 

Still  o'er  the  deep-mouthed  cataract's  roar. 
Shall  ring  the  war-cry,  from  the  height. 

That  woke  the  wilds  of  yore. 

Sweet  Vale,  more  peaceful  bend  thy  skies. 

Thy  airs  be  fraught  with  rarer  balm! 
A  people's  busy  tumult  lies 

Hushed  in  thy  sylvan  calm. 
Deep  be  thy  peace!  while  fancy  frames 

Soft  idyls  of  thy  dwellers  fled;  — 
They  loved  thee,  called  thee  gentle  names. 

In  the  long  summers  dead. 

Quenched  is  the  fire;  the  drifting  smoke 
Has  vanished  in  the  autumn  haze. 

Gone,  too,  O  Vale,  the  simple  folk 
Who  loved  thee  in  old  days. 


GENESEE  VALLEY   HISTORY  89 

But,  for  their  sakes,  —  their  lives  serene. 
Their  loves,  perchance  as  sweet  as  ours,  — 

Oh,  be  thy  woods  for  aye  more  green. 
And  fairer  bloom  thy  flowers. 

It  was  the  fitting  close  to  a  memorable  day. 

To  these  concluding  words  of  Mr.  Rowland, 
is  it  going  beyond  the  truth  to  add  that  Mr. 
Gray  had  sung  the  requiem  of  the  Senecas  in 
the  most  exquisite  verse  that  the  fate  of  the  red 
men  has  ever  called  forth? 

Some  hours  after  the  closing  of  the  cere- 
monies of  the  council,  Mr.  Letchworth,  yield- 
ing to  an  earnest  request  of  his  Indian  guests, 
was  formally  adopted  and  initiated  by  them  into 
the  Seneca  Nation,  and  given  the  name  "Hai- 
wa-ye-is-tah,"  which  was  interpreted  as  signify- 
ing "The  Man  who  always  does  Right"  —  or 
"the  Right  Thing." 

As  will  have  been  noted  in  the  preceding 
account,  the  descendants  of  Mary  Jemison, 
"the  white  woman,"  had  their  place  ^^^  ^^_ 
of  distinction  among  the  chiefs;  and  son,  "the 
she  was,  indeed,  a  notable  character  White  Wo- 
in  the  history  of  the  Seneca  Nation. 
The  story  of  her  life  with  the  Indians,  first  as  a 


90     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

captive,  from  childhood,  and  then  as  a  freely 
willing  member  of  their  community,  interested 
Mr.  Letchworth  greatly.  He  conceived  a  high 
estimate  of  her  character,  and  had  pleasure  in  giv- 
ing permanence  to  memorials  of  her  remarkable 
association  with  the  Seneca  dwellers  on  the 
Genesee.  She  was  a  daughter  of  immigrants, 
probably  from  Ireland,  though  her  knowledge 
of  their  nativity  was  uncertain,  and  was  born  at 
sea  during  their  voyage,  in  1742  or  1743.  Her 
father  took  a  farm  on  the  western  border  of  Penn- 
sylvania, and,  according  to  her  remembrance  of 
the  parental  home,  the  family  prospered  and 
were  happy  for  several  years.  Then  came  sudden 
destruction  to  this  hopeful  household,  almost 
at  the  first  stroke  of  the  cruel  French  and  Indian 
War,  in  1755.  A  band  of  six  Indians  and  four 
Frenchmen  came  upon  the  family  on  a  pleasant 
day  of  that  spring,  and  seized  all  but  the  two 
older  sons,  who  escaped.  For  two  days  the  cap- 
tives were  together,  dragged  in  a  hurried  march 
through  the  wilderness;  but  on  the  second 
night,  when  they  camped,  Mary  and  a  little  boy 
from  another  family  were  taken  apart  from  the 
rest,  and  she  never  saw  any  of  her  kin  again. 
She  learned  afterwards  that  her  father,  mother, 
a  sister,  and  two  brothers  were  killed  that  night. 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY         91 

Mary  was  taken  to  the  French  Fort  Du 
Quesne,  where  Pittsburg  was  founded  a  little 
later,  and  there  her  captors,  who  were  Indians 
of  the  Shawnee  tribe,  gave  her  to  two  squaws 
of  the  Seneca  Nation,  who  lived  in  a  Seneca 
village  farther  down  the  Ohio  River.  These 
women  were  mourning  the  death  of  a  brother, 
lately  slain,  and  they  solaced  their  grief  for  him 
by  adopting  this  child,  to  be  their  sister.  They 
treated  her  with  fond  kindness,  and  made  her 
life  as  happy  as  they  could.  So,  too,  as  her  own 
account  represents,  did  the  husband,  a  Dela- 
ware Indian,  to  whom  they  gave  her  some  years 
later  and  with  whom  she  lived  until  she  had 
borne  two  children,  to  one  of  whom  she  gave 
her  father's  name,  Thomas  Jemison,  and  his 
descendants  are  still  carrying  down  that  name. 
She  described  her  first  Indian  husband  as  hav- 
ing been  a  noble  man,  who  won  her  love.  She 
parted  from  him  presently,  however,  to  visit 
her  Indian  sisters,  who  had  gone  northward 
from  the  Ohio  two  years  before,  to  join  their 
mother  and  other  relatives  at  the  main  settle- 
ment of  the  Seneca  people,  at  Gen-nis-he-yo, 
"the  beautiful  valley"  of  the  river  which  we, 
keeping  the  Indian  name  imperfectly,  call  the 
Genesee.  With  two  Indian  brothers  she  made  the 


92     WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

longjourney  of  some  hundreds  of  miles  on  foot, 
carrying  her  youngest  child  on  her  back,  in  the 
Indian  way;  and  she  arrived  at  Gen-nis-he-yo 
in  good  health.  Her  husband  was  to  have  fol- 
lowed her  in  the  next  spring  after  their  parting; 
but  he  did  not  come,  and  after  some  months 
she  learned  that  he  had  died.  Two  or  three 
years  later  she  married  again.  Her  second  hus- 
band, named  Hiokatoo,  must  have  been  more 
than  twice  her  age,  but  she  lived  with  him  until 
1811,  when  he  died  at  the  reputed  age  of  103. 
He  was  said  to  be  a  merciless  savage  warrior, 
whose  cruelties  shocked  her;  but  he  treated  her 
with  kindness  and  she  spoke  well  of  him  to 
her  friends. 

Excepting  at  the  time  of  General  Sullivan's 
expedition  against  the  Senecas,  in  1779,  when 
the  Genesee  Valley  was  devastated  by  his  army, 
Mary  Jemison  appears  to  have  lived  in  what 
had  become  a  state  of  comfort  to  her,  and  was 
so  fairly  contented  that  she  refused  opportuni- 
ties, when  they  came,  to  exchange  it  for  a  life 
with  people  of  her  own  race.  The  red  men  were 
now  her  people;  she  identified  herself  with  them, 
and  they  held  her  in  profound  respect.  At  their 
great  "  Big  Tree  Council,"  in  1797,  they  granted 
to  her  by  deed  a  magnificent  tract  of  the  choic- 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY         93 

est  land  in  the  Genesee  Valley,  containing 
nearly  eighteen  thousand  acres,  measuring,  east 
and  west,  more  than  six  miles  in  length,  with  a 
width  of  more  than  four  and  three  fourths  miles, 
having  the  Genesee  River  running  through  it. 
It  was  a  tract  of  her  own  choosing,  and  included 
the  ground  on  which  she  had  lived  since  the 
Sullivan  invasion  of  the  valley.  It  was  known 
in  her  day  and  is  still  known  as  the  Gardeau 
Tract  or  Reservation.  In  1823  she  was  induced 
to  sell  most  of  this  superb  estate  to  white  pur- 
chasers, who  guaranteed  to  her  and  her  succes- 
sors forever  a  yearly  payment  of  three  hundred 
dollars.  A  little  later,  when  most  of  the  Sene- 
cas  had  sold  their  lands  in  the  valley  and  left 
it,  to  settle  on  other  reservations,  —  Buffalo 
Creek,  Tonawanda  or  Cattaraugus,  —  Mary 
Jemison  grew  lonely  in  the  midst  of  white 
neighbors,  and  she  not  only  sold  her  remaining 
lands,  but  gave  up  her  annuity  for  some  moder- 
ate payment  of  money  in  hand.  With  the  pro- 
ceeds she  came  to  Buffalo  and  established  a 
home  for  herself  and  for  a  married  daughter, 
with  the  latter's  husband,  George  Shongo,  and 
five  grandchildren.  In  some  transaction  with  a 
white  man  whom  she  trusted,  her  little  capital 
was  soon  lost,  and  she  was  dependent  thereafter 


94     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

on  her  son-in-law  and  daughter  for  support. 
She  died  in  September,  1833,  aged  ninety  or 
ninety-one  years. 

The  facts  of  Mary  Jemison's  extraordinary 
life  were  obtained  from  her  and  first  published 
in  1824,  by  James  E.  Seaver,  of  Batavia,  New 
York.  In  an  introduction  to  the  narrative,  Mr. 
Seaver  remarked  that  her  first  association  "with 
moral,  social,  civilized  man,  from  the  time  of 
her  childhood,"  may  be  dated  at  1797,  when 
the  Indian  lands  on  the  Genesee  were  sold  and 
white  settlers  began  to  come  into  them.  "Still," 
he  adds,  "she  had  retained  her  native  language 
with  great  purity,  and  had  treasured  up  and 
constantly  kept  in  her  own  breast  all  those  mo- 
ral and  social  virtues  by  the  precepts  of  which 
civilized  society  professes  to  be  guided.  .  .  . 
In  all  her  actions  [she]  discovered  so  much 
natural  goodness  of  heart  that  her  admirers  in- 
creased in  proportion  to  the  extension  of  her 
acquaintance."  Mrs.  Asher  Wright,  whose  long 
missionary  labors,  with  her  husband,  among 
the  Indians  of  western  New  York  are  well 
known,  saw  Mary  Jemison  in  the  last  year  of 
the  latter's  life,  and  gathered  much  information 
about  her,  from  which  she  drew  this  conclusion: 
"From  all  that  I    have  learned  of  her,  from 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY         95 

those  who  were,  for  years,  contemporary  with 
her,  she  possessed  great  fortitude  and  self-con- 
trol; was  cautious  and  prudent  in  all  her  con- 
duct; had  a  kind  and  tender  heart;  was  hospi- 
table and  generous  and  faithful  in  all  her  duties 
as  a  wife  and  mother." 

The  original  edition  of  Mary  Jemison's 
autobiography,  as  put  into  writing  by  Mr. 
Seaver,  is  now  one  of  the  rarest  of  American 
books.  A  number  of  reprints  and  abridgments 
were  published,  in  this  country  and  in  England, 
prior  to  1877,  when  Mr.  Letchworth  acquired 
ownership  of  the  plates  of  one  of  these,  which 
had  been  edited,  in  1856,  by  the  eminent  stu- 
dent of  Indian  History,  Mr.  Lewis  H.  Mor- 
gan, of  Rochester.  Mr.  Letchworth  then  pub- 
lished an  edition,  with  appendices  of  important 
new  matter,  contributed  by  William  C.  Bryant 
and  Mrs.  Asher  Wright,  and  he  republished 
the  same  in  1898,  and  again  in  1910. 

The  removal  of  the  ancient  Seneca  Council 
House  from  the  farm  at  Caneadea,  where  it  was 
exposed  to  destruction,  to  a  promi- 
nent  site  m  (jlen  Ins,  was  but  the  son  memo- 
beginning    of  proceedings    by    Mr.   rials  at  Glen 
Letchworth  to  save  and  to  bring  to-      *^ 
gether,  in  that  same  place,  what  could  be  saved 


96     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

of  the  fast  disappearing  relics  of  the  Senecas,  in 
the  time  of  their  lordship  on  and  around  the 
Genesee.  Presently,  a  log  house  or  cabin  that 
had  been  built  by  Mary  Jemison  while  she  lived 
on  the  Gardeau  Tract,  for  one  of  her  married 
daughters,  was  brought  over  and  placed  near 
the  Council  House,  at  the  entrance  of  an  en- 
closure which  holds  both.  Then,  on  the  yth  of 
March,  1874,  the  remains  of  Mary  Jemison 
were  disinterred  from  the  Indian  Mission  burial 
ground  at  Buffalo  and  deposited  in  a  new  grave, 
between  the  two  buildings  just  named.  Some 
displacement  of  these  remains  from  their  orig- 
inal grave  was  impending,  as  a  consequence  of 
the  opening  of  a  street  through  the  burial  ground 
at  Buffalo,  and  the  most  fitting  of  places  to  re- 
ceive them  was  that  which  Mr.  Letch  worth  gave.' 
At  the  head  of  the  grave  he  erected  a  tasteful 
monument,  having  on  one  side  the  inscription 
which  the  original  gravestone  had  borne,  and 
on  the  other  side  a  second  one  reciting  the  facts 

'  Recently  the  remainder  of  the  old  Indian  burial  ground, 
not  taken  for  a  street,  has  been  purchased  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
John  D.  Larkin,  and  given  to  the  city  for  the  purposes  of  a  small 
public  park.  A  brief  record  of  its  history,  inscribed  on  a  bronze 
tablet,  is  about  to  be  fixed  durably  to  a  boulder  placed  on  the 
ground. 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY         97 

of  the  removal.    The  original  gravestone,  much 
mutilated,  is  preserved  in  the  adjacent  cabin. 

But  Mr.  Letchworth  was  contemplating  a  still 
higher  honor  to  pay  to  the  memory  of  Mary 
Jemison.  As  early  as  September,  1876,  he  wrote 
to  a  Dr.  Munson,  of  Independence,  Ohio,  say- 
ing :  "  I  am  contemplating  causing  to  be  made  a 
statue  in  bronze  of  '  The  White  Woman,'  Mary 
Jemison.  ...  I  address  you,  having  been  in- 
formed that  you  have  a  retentive  memory  of 
her,"  and  he  asked  Dr.  Munson  to  give  inform- 
ation as  to  her  figure,  features,  dress,  etc.,  for 
the  guidance  of  the  sculptor  who  might  under- 
take the  work.  A  third  of  a  century  passed, 
however,  before  this  intention  was  fulfilled.  But 
Mr.  Letchworth  rarely  failed,  to  do  what  his 
mind  had  once  decreed,  and  there  was  no  fail- 
ure in  this.  In  the  last  year  of  his  life,  on  the 
19th  of  September,  1910,  ten  weeks  before  his 
death,  the  long  contemplated  bronze  statue  of 
Mary  Jemison,  erected  on  a  pedestal  near  her 
grave,  was  dedicated  with  appropriate  ceremony, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  American  Scenic  and 
Historic  Preservation  Society.  It  is  a  much  ad- 
mired, beautiful  work  of  art,  by  the  sculptor 
Henry  K.  Bush-Brown,  representing  its  subject 
as  a  young  woman,  in  her  Indian  garb,  as  she 


98     WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH 

must  have  appeared  when  she  arrived  at  Gen- 
nis-he-yo,  carrying  her  infant  child,  in  the  Indian 
mode,  on  her  back. 

The  unveiHng  of  the  statue  was  attended  by 
many  of  the  officers  of  the  American  Scenic  and 
Historic  Preservation  Society,  including  its  pre- 
sident, Mr.  George  Frederick  Kunz,  of  New 
York;  its  secretary,  Mr.  Edward  Hagaman 
Hall,  of  New  York;  the  chairman  of  its  Letch- 
worth  Park  Committee,  the  Honorable  Charles 
M.  Dow,  of  Jamestown,  New  York,  and  two  of 
its  trustees.  Professor  Liberty  H.  Bailey  and 
Mr.  Charles  Delameter  Vail.  Addresses  were 
made  by  each  of  these.  Professor  Arthur  C. 
Parker,  of  the  New  York  State  Museum,  who 
is  a  descendant  of  General  Ely  S.  Parker,  con- 
ducted the  unveiling  of  the  statue.  The  Ameri- 
can flag  which  draped  it  was  withdrawn  by  Miss 
Carlenia  Bennett,  assisted  by  Mrs.  Thomas 
Kennedy,  both  of  these  ladies  tracing  descent 
from  Mary  Jemison. 

On  the  morning  following  the  unveiling  an 
Indian  dedicatory  ceremony  took  place,  which 
Professor  Parker  described  in  a  subsequent  let- 
ter to  Mr.  Letchworth,  as  follows  :  — 

The  ancient  rule  is  that  only  the  closest  of  friends 
and  nearest  of  kin  shall  be  at  the  graveside.    Repre- 


STATUE   OF   MARY   JEMISON 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY         99 

senting  you  and  your  family  were  Miss  Howland  and 
Miss  Bishop  ;  representing  the  people  of  Mary  Jemi- 
son's  natal  soil  [Ireland]  and  her  parents  was  Mr.  J. 
N.  Johnston  ;  and  representing  the  Indian  family  and 
her  adopted  nation  were  Mrs.  Thomas  Kennedy  (nee 
Sarah  Jemison),  called  in  Seneca  Ga-wen-no-is,  or 
Outpouring  Voice,  Miss  Carlenia  Bennett,  Ga-o-yo- 
was,  Sweeper  of  the  Sky,  and  Arthur  C.  Parker,  Ga- 
wa-so-wa-neh,  a  descendant  of  Handsome  Lake  and 
General  Ely  S.  Parker. 

The  maiden  was  handed  two  ears  of  squaw  corn  by 
Mrs.  Kennedy  and  bidden  to  cast  four  handfuls  of  the 
grain  on  the  grave,  from  the  foot  to  the  head.  Mrs. 
Kennedy  then  made  a  short  address  in  which  she  said: 
*'  This  is  the  corn  which  so  often  you  cultivated.  Many 
times  you  husked  it  in  harvest  and  on  the  following 
spring  sowed  it  again,  and  it  grew.  It  is  a  symbol  that 
as  it  dies  only  to  spring  up  anew,  likewise  we  shall  live 
again.  The  birds  eat  it  from  the  ground  where  we 
place  it  and  fly  again  to  the  skies.  This  is  like  the 
body  that  tarries  on  the  earth  to  eat  of  its  fruits,  but 
flies  upward  when  the  Great  Wisdom  knows  it  is 
time." 

At  Mrs.  Kennedy's  request  Mr.  Parker  laid  the 
grave  fire,  and,  lighting  it  from  four  points,  threw  upon 
it  the  incense  ordained  for  such  purposes,  the  tobacco 
herb,  which  the  Senecas  know  as  O-yen-kwa-o-weh. 
The  leaf  from  which  it  was  cast  was  thrown  to  the 
flames,  and  an  evergreen  bough  placed  over  the  flames 


100     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

of  the  grave  fire.  The  ears  of  corn  were  then  handed 
by  Mrs.  Kennedy  to  Miss  Bishop,  with  the  instruc- 
tion that  they  .should  be  preserved  as  a  memorial  of 
the  event.  To  the  Indian  all  these  things  are  symbolic 
and  things  to  be  obeyed. 

As  the  party  left  the  graveside,  Indian  file,  each 
one  gave  one  glance  over  his  shoulder,  to  see  that  the 
thin  blue  stream  of  smoke  still  lifted  to  the  skies,  and 
with  this  last  glance  went  away. 

The  securing  of  the  Seneca  Council  House 
was  substantially  the  beginning  of  an  extensive 
Th  G  ne-  collection  of  objects  connected  with 
see  Valley  Indian  history  and  archeology.  With 
Museum  effective  assistance  from  Mr.  Henry 
R.  Hovvland,  Mrs.  Asher  Wright,  and  other 
friends,  Mr.  Letchworth  acquired,  during  the 
next  thirty  or  more  years,  a  very  large  and  scien- 
tifically valuable  store  of  archaeological  relics, 
illustrating  the  primitive  arts  of  the  North 
American  Indians,  together  with  objects  inter- 
esting as  memorials  of  the  aboriginal  history  of 
the  Genesee  Valley  and  Western  New  York.  For 
the  housing  of  most  of  these  a  practically  fire- 
proof building,  sheathed  with  iron  and  roofed 
with  slate,  was  erected  in  1898,  within  the  Coun- 
cil House  grounds.  In  this  they  were  scientifi- 
cally arranged,  with  much  care,  by  Mr.  Howland, 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY       loi 

and  the  collection  received  the  appropriate  name 
of  the  Genesee  Valley  Museum.  A  "Guide" 
to  the  Museum,  prepared  by  Mr.  Howland  and 
printed  in  1907,  states  that  it  "contains  about 
five  thousand  exhibits  of  stone  implements, 
weapons,  articles  of  dress,  ornaments,  ancient 
articles  of  copper,  brass  and  iron,  found  upon 
the  sites  of  old  Indian  villages,  and  other  inter- 
esting specimens  related  to  Indian  life  and  cus- 
toms, many  of  which  have  been  deposited  here 
for  safe-keeping." 

A  prominent  exhibit  in  the  Museum,  of  more 
antiquity  than  the  most  prehistoric  of  the  Indian 
relics,  is  furnished  by  the  remains  of  a  masto- 
don, unearthed  in  the  summer  of  1876  by  men 
who  were  ditching  a  farm  near  Pike,  not  far 
from  Glen  Iris.  These  were  bought  by  Mr. 
Letchworth,  who  had  them  mounted,  at  Roches- 
ter, by  Professor  Ward. 

Among  historical  memorials  in  the  Museum, 
the  most  interesting,  perhaps,  are  a  portrait  of 
Major  Moses  Van  Campen  (painted  during  his 
life)  and  a  tomahawk  with  which  the  Major, 
having  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  war-party  of 
ten  savages,  in  1780,  slew  five  of  them  in  their 
sleep  and  made  his  escape.  Captured  a  second 
time,  he  ran  the  gauntlet,  at  the  Caneadea  Coun- 


102     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

cil  House,  with  success,  as  related  already  in 
this  chapter,  and  again  escaped  death. 

Another  similar  incident  of  the  Revolution- 
ary War,  on  the  Seneca  border,  and  having  the 
same  Council  House  scene,  is  commemorated, 
outside  of  the  Museum,  by  a  tree  planted  on 
its  hundredth  anniversary,  August,  1879.  The 
planting  was  by  a  son  of  Captain  Horatio  Jones, 
who,  being  no  more  than  a  boy,  in  a  company 
of  rangers,  and  taken  prisoner  by  the  Indians, 
was  compelled  to  run  the  gauntlet  at  Caneadea, 
coming  through  it  without  hurt;  whereupon  he 
was  adopted  into  Chief  Cornplanter's  tribe. 

The  famous  "Big  Tree"  of  the  Genesee  — 
the  great  oak  which  gave  its  name  to  the  "  Big 
Tree  Treaty"  of  1797,  whereby  the  Senecas 
ceded  to  Robert  Morris  most  of  their  lands 
west  of  the  Genesee  —  is  represented  here  by  a 
liberal  section  of  its  huge  trunk.  This  was  given 
to  Mr.  Letchworth  by  the  heirs  of  General 
James  S.  Wadsworth,  of  Geneseo,  on  whose 
estate  it  stood,  near  the  river's  edge,  until  a 
spring  freshet  in  1857  undermined  it  and  caused 
its  fall. 

As  one  of  the  founders  and  supporters  of  the 
Buffalo  Historical  Society,  organized  in  1862, 
Mr.  Letchworth  was  always  identified  actively 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY       103 

and  earnestly  with  the  society's  work.  He  was 
its  president  in  1878-79,  and  his  address  on  re- 
tiring from  the  office  was  devoted  in  the  main 
to  a  report  of  what  had  been  and  was  being 
done  by  WilHam  C.  Bryant,  O.  H.  Marshall, 
himself,  and  others,  to  bring  about  a  removal 
of  the  remains  of  Red  Jacket,  and  other  chiefs 
of  the  Senecas,  to  the  Forest  Lawn  Cemetery 
of  Buffalo,  from  the  burial  ground  of  the  Cat- 
taraugus Reservation,  where  the  identification 
of  them  seemed  likely  to  be  lost.  The  council- 
lors of  the  nation  had  assented  to  this  removal, 
and  it  was  accomplished  not  long  afterward,  un- 
der the  auspices  of  the  Historical  Society.  Ulti- 
mately a  fine  statue  of  Red  Jacket  was  erected 
on  the  plot  of  ground  which  holds  these  re- 
mains. 

Apart  from  their  history,  Mr.  Letchworth 
showed  always  a  warm  interest  in  the  Indian 
peoples  themselves,  and  made  careful  use  of 
his  opportunities  to  promote  their  welfare.  In 
that  part  of  his  career  which  has  not  yet  been 
touched  in  this  biography,  when  he  came  offi- 
cially into  the  service  of  the  public,  as  a  commis- 
sioner of  the  New  York  State  Board  of  Char- 
ities, he  gave  close  attention  to  the  Thomas 
Orphan  Asylum,  on  the  Cattaraugus  Reserva- 


104     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

tion,  and  was  in  constant  correspondence  with 
Mrs.  Asher  Wright,  who  continued  the  mis- 
sionary work  of  her  deceased  husband  on  the 
reservation.  Mrs.  Wright's  letters  to  him  show 
how  much  she  depended  on  his  advice,  his  in- 
fluence, and  his  contributions  of  money,  to  sus- 
tain the  efforts  she  made  to  reheve  distress  and 
to  introduce  employments  among  the  women 
and  the  young. 

In  the  last  year  of  his  life  Mr.  Letchworth 
received  (February,  1910)  a  gratifying  recogni- 
tion of  the  importance  of  what  he  had  done  for 
the  promotion  and  illustration  of  Iroquois  his- 
tory. This  came  in  the  award  to  him  of  what 
bears  the  name  of  the  "  Cornplanter  Medal," 
founded  by  Professor  Frederick  Starr,  of  Chi- 
cago University,  in  1904.  Funds  for  instituting 
the  medal  were  obtained  by  the  sale  of  pen-and- 
ink  drawings  of  Indian  games  and  dances, 
made  by  Jesse  Cornplanter,  a  twelve-year-old 
Seneca  lad  of  pure  blood.  The  award,  for  Iro- 
quois research,  was  confided  to  the  Cayuga 
County  Historical  Society,  of  Auburn,  New 
York.  The  medal  is  of  silver,  struck  from  dies 
cut  by  Tiffany  &  Co.,  of  New  York.  The 
awards  are  made  every  two  years.  That  to  Mr. 
Letchworth  was  the  fourth. 


GENESEE  VALLEY  HISTORY        105 

The  historical  associations  of  what  is  now 
Letchworth  Park  are  not  wholly  confined  to 
these  memorials  of  the  distant  past  ^  memorial 
and  of  a  disappearing  race;  for  it  of  the  War 
holds  within  its  area  a  bit  of  ground  ^^  Rebellion 
that  became  sacred  in  the  memory  of  many 
who  fought  for  the  Union  half  a  century  ago, 
and  is  cherished  no  less  in  the  remembrance  of 
their  neighbors  and  friends.  It  was  the  site  of 
the  rendezvous  camp  of  a  notable  regiment  in 
the  Union  Army,  formed  originally  as  the  130th 
New  York  Volunteer  Infantry,  but  mounted 
when  it  went  to  the  front,  in  1862,  and  known 
thereafter  as  the  First  New  York  Dragoons. 
This  regiment,  made  up  of  volunteers  from 
Wyoming,  Livingston,  and  Allegany  count- 
ies, went  through  hard  experiences  in  the  field. 
The  camp  in  which  it  was  assembled  and  or- 
ganized for  service  was  pitched  on  the  eastern 
side  of  the  river,  not  far  from  opposite  to  Mr. 
Letchworth's  house,  and  within  the  bounds  of 
his  final  estate.  The  survivors  of  the  regiment, 
since  their  return,  have  been  holding  annual 
reunions  on  this  ground,  and  have  erected  up- 
on it  a  monument  to  commemorate  the  use  it 
had  in  1862.  It  is,  assuredly,  not  the  least  in 
interest  among  the  features  of  the  park. 


CHAPTER  IV 

CHILD-SAVING  WORK  :    PREVENIENT 

Early  in  1873  Mr.  Letchworth  withdrew  from 
all  connection  with  the  firm  of  Pratt  &  Letch- 
worth, having  deliberately  resolved  to  devote 
his  remaining  years  to  philanthropic  work.  He 
was  in  his  prime,  at  fifty  years  of  age ;  the  bus- 
iness which  he  dropped  was  highly  prosperous 
and  profitable ;  he  had  accumulated  no  great 
fortune  in  it,  but  there  were  safe  promises  of 
large  wealth  in  what  he  gave  up.  To  secure 
needed  rest,  or  a  pleasure-seeking  freedom  of 
life,  many  men  in  like  circumstances  may  do 
as  he  did  ;  but  to  quit  the  labors  of  the  count- 
ing-room in  mid-life,  and  at  the  crest  of  pro- 
sperity, renouncing  their  substantial  rewards  in 
order  to  take  up  an  increased  burden  of  labor, 
for  no  other  reward  than  the  satisfaction  of  do- 
ing good  to  one's  fellow  men,  is  surely  a  rare 
act. 

It  does  not  appear  that  any  definite  place  or 
plan  of  labor  in  the  field  he  wished  to  enter 
was  in  Mr.  Letchworth's  mind  when  he  retired 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT     107 

from  the  business  that  had    occupied  him  for 

twenty-five  years ;  but  the  place  which  seemed 

made  for   him  was  awaiting  his  ac-  Entering 

ceptance  of  it,  and  he  was  called  to  service  in 

it  almost   at  once.    In  April,   1871     the  New 

,  .  r  1  •  ,        York  State 

on   the   suggestion   or  his   name  by  Board  of 

the  Honorable  James  O.  Putnam  Charities 
to  Governor  Dix,  he  was  asked  to  become  one 
of  the  commissioners  of  the  New  York  State 
Board  of  Charities,  filling  a  vacancy  in  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  Eighth  Judicial  District  (west- 
ern New  York),  and  he  readily  accepted  the 
post.  At  about  the  same  time  he  was  offered 
the  Republican  nomination  for  Congress  in  the 
district  of  his  country  residence,  where  the 
nomination  ensured  election  ;  but  that  prof- 
fer he  declined.  Neither  tastes  nor  ambitions 
drew  him  toward  public  service  in  the  political 
field. 

The  Board  of  State  Commissioners  of  Pub- 
lic Charities  —  commonly  referred  to  as  the 
State  Board  of  Charities — was  in  its  seventh 
year  of  existence  when  Mr.  Letchworth  became 
a  member.  Prior  to  its  creation,  in  1867,  there 
had  been  no  state  supervision  over  public  char- 
ities in  New  York,  though  the  need  of  some 
exercise  of  supervisory  authority  had  been  made 


io8     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

apparent  frequently,  by  the  disclosure  of  uncor- 
rected wrongs  and  evil  conditions  in  charitable 
institutions  of  every  kind.  The  Honorable 
John  V.  L.  Pruyn,  of  Albany,  had  been  for 
some  years  a  leader  in  efforts  to  secure  the 
needed  legislation,  and  when,  at  last,  authority 
was  obtained  for  the  constitution  of  the  Board, 
he  accepted  the  presidency  of  it,  which  he  held 
until  his  death,  in  November,  1877.  The  other 
members  of  the  Board  in  1873,  when  Mr. 
Letchworth  entered  it,  were  Nathan  Bishop, 
Howard  Potter,  Benjamin  B.  Sherman,  of  New 
York  City  (representing  the  three  judicial  dis- 
tricts of  that  city) ;  James  A.  Degrauw,  of 
Brooklyn ;  Harvey  G.  Eastman,  of  Pough- 
keepsie;  Edward  W.  Foster,  of  Potsdam; 
Samuel  F.  Miller,  of  Franklin  ;  John  C.  Dev- 
ereux,  of  Utica ;  Martin  B.  Anderson,  of 
Rochester  ;  to  whom  were  added,  ex  officio,  five 
state  officers,  namely,  the  Lieutenant-Governor, 
the  Secretary  of  State,  the  Comptroller,  the 
Attorney-General,  and  the  State  Commissioner 
of  Lui^acy.  The  secretary  of  the  Board  was 
Dr.  Charles  S.  Hoyt,  who  had  been,  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  legislature,  its  earnest  advocate, 
taking  a  leading  part  in  the  passage  of  the  cre- 
ative act. 


CHILD-SAVING:   PREVENIENT      109 

Legislation  in  1873,  on  the  eve  of  the  en- 
trance of  Commissioner  Letchworth  into  his 
duties,  had  enlarged  the  jurisdiction  Enlarged 
and  the  powers  of  the  Board  in  pre-  jurisdiction 
cisely  the  direction  that  he  would  o^t^^e  Board 
prefer  to  have  given  to  his  work,  so  far  as  he 
would  specialize  it  at  all.  The  Board  was  now 
authorized  to  extend  its  inquiries  concerning 
dependent  children  to  private  as  well  as  to 
public  institutions.  The  organic  act  of  1867 
authorized  the  commissioners,  or  any  of  them,  to 
visit  and  inspect  annually,  or  as  much  oftener 
as  they  might  deem  proper,  all  charitable  and 
correctional  institutions  receiving  state  aid.  It 
gave  authority  to  the  commissioners  to  inquire 
and  examine  into  the  condition  of  all  such  insti- 
tutions, as  to  their  management,  care  of  inmates, 
and  other  matters  bearing  on  their  usefulness 
and  right  influence;  with  power  to  administer 
oaths  and  to  summon  witnesses  by  compulsory 
process  if  necessary. 

Of  dependent  children,  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  State  Board  of  Charities,  in  1873,  extended 
over  nearly  16,000,  shown  in  the  next  annual 
report  of  the  Board  as  follows:  — 


no     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

In  county  poorhouses,'  644 

In  city  almshouses,  371 

In  orphan  asylums  and  homes  for  the  friendless,  7,739 

In  hospitals,  15034 

In  reformatory  institutions,  3i55i 
In  institutions  for  foundlings  and  homeless 

infants,  15824 

In  institutions  for  the  blind,  9 

In  institutions  for  the  deaf  and  dumb,  407 

In  institutions  for  idiots,  89 


15,668 


Males,  9059. 
Females,  6609. 


The  rearing  of  children  in  county  poorhouses 
and  city  almshouses  was  the  most  serious  of 
Children  in  the  evil  Conditions  that  had  been 
poorhouses  engaging  the  attention  of  the  Board 
since  its  work  began.  Public  interest  in  the 
matter  had  been  undergoing  a  slow  awakening 
for  several  years,  and  a  gradual  movement  of 
reformation  was  in  progress;  but  it  needed  a 
push  of  individual  energy,  with  a  resolute  will 
behind    it,  to    break    the    impediments   down. 

'  For  some  reason,  probably  to  be  found  in  the  statutes  under 
which  they  were  established  originally,  the  county  institutions 
of  this  character  in  New  York  are  designated  as  *'  poorhouses," 
while  those  maintained  by  cities  are  called  **  almshouses." 


CHILD-SAVING:   PREVENIENT      iii 

Mr.  Letchworth  supplied  that  need.  He  seems 
to  have  resolved  at  once  to  make  this,  in  a 
special  way,  his  first  field  of  work.  No  doubt 
he  gave  his  colleagues  to  understand  his  readi- 
ness for  what  was  certain  to  be  an  arduous  task, 
and  they  took  responsive  action,  as  stated  in 
the  report  of  the  Board  for  1874  : — 

At  the  meeting  held  in  June  last  Commissioner 
Letchworth  [elected  Vice  President  of  the  Board  at 
that  meeting]  was  requested  to  give  the  subject  [of 
the  removal  of  children  from  poorhouses  and  alms- 
houses] special  attention,  and  was  authorized  to  con- 
fer, personally  and  by  letter,  with  superintendents  of 
the  poor  and  other  officers,  and  also  to  institute  such 
inquiries  and  examinations  into  the  matter  as  he  might 
deem  desirable  and  proper. 

As  set  forth  in  a  later  report  of  the  Board, 
the  conditions  it  had  found  at  the  outset  of  its 
undertakings  in  this  direction  were  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

In  the  first  examination  of  the  poorhouses  of  the 
state,  by  the  Board,  in  1868,  there  were  found  in 
these  institutions,  not  including  New  York  and  King's 
counties,  1222  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age, 
or  17.41  percent  of  all  the  inmates.  The  almshouses 
of  New  York  City  contained  at  the  same  time  630 
children,  and  that  of  King's  County  379,  making  a 


112     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCH  WORTH 

total  of  1009,  or  15.48  per  cent  of  the  inmates  of 
these  institutions.  These  last-mentioned  almshouses 
had  separate  buildings  for  the  children,  but,  as  they 
were  brought  into  constant  association  with  adult 
pauper  inmates,  their  situation  was  little  or  no  better 
than  that  of  the  children  in  the  county  poorhouses. 
It  thus  appears  that  the  number  of  pauper  children  in 
the  state  at  that  time  was  2231,  equivalent  to  16.49 
per  cent  of  all  the  paupers.  The  examination  and  sub- 
sequent inquiries  by  the  Board  fully  demonstrated  that 
poorhouses  were  not  fit  places  in  which  to  rear  chil- 
dren, and  that  all  attempts  for  their  improvement 
under  such  circumstances  would  be  almost  vain. 

Commissioner    Letchworth   had    not  waited 

for  the  formal  commission  that  was  given  to  him 

by  his   Board  in  June,  1874,  before  taking  up 

•»,  T  .  ,-  the  special  child-saving  task  which 
Mr.  Letch-  *  .     ° 

worth's  first  he  chose  to  make  his  own.  He  saw 
child-saving  \j^  j^jg  q^^  county  a  state  of  things 
which  summoned  him  to  the  work 
as  soon  as  official  authority  had  come  into  his 
hands.  A  brief  account  of  this  beginning  of 
his  official  service  was  written  once  by  himself. 
The  first  work  on  which  I  entered  after  my  appoint- 
ment as  a  commissioner  [he  said],  was  that  of  correct- 
ing abuses  in  the  Erie  County  Poorhouse,  as  affecting 
the  care  of  the  dependent  children  and  the  insane,  and 
reforming  the  county  system  in  reference  to  these  two 


CHILD-SAVING:   PREVENIENT       113 

classes.  There  were  at  that  time  seventy-two  children 
in  the  poorhouse  from  two  years  of  age  upwards. 
These  were  of  all  grades  of  mental,  physical,  and 
moral  condition.  Their  associations  and  the  influences 
surrounding  them  were  degrading,  and  there  was  an 
entire  absence  of  systematic  moral  and  religious  in- 
struction. A  school,  or  the  semblance  of  one,  under 
the  charge  of  a  daughter  of  one  of  the  supervisors, 
was  maintained  ;  but  the  freedom  of  the  place,  the  ab- 
sence of  necessary  rules,  and  the  listlessness  of  the 
pupils,  made  the  attempt  to  benefit  them  by  this  means 
abortive.  I  saw  no  other  way  to  effect  a  complete  re- 
form than  by  the  removal  of  the  children. 

Through  the  influence  of  the  press,  so  far  as  it  was 
favorable  to  my  views,  I  endeavored  to  create  an  in- 
telligent public  opinion  on  the  subject.  Personal  ap- 
peals were  made  to  members  of  the  Board  of  Super- 
visors and  to  influential  persons  interested  in  charitable 
work.  Conferences  between  managers  and  officers  of 
the  orphan  asylums  and  the  Superintendent  of  the  Poor 
and  myself  were  held,  at  which  I  had  the  opportunity 
to  set  forth  my  views.  The  public  conscience  was  at 
length  awakened,  and  I  was  formally  invited  to  come 
before  the  Board  of  Supervisors  and  address  them  on 
the  subject,  which  I  did  in  an  earnest  appeal.  With 
the  Superintendent  of  the  Poor,  who  had  become  in- 
terested, I  examined  all  of  the  institutions  in  the  county 
where  children  were  cared  for,  in  order  that  we  might 
bear  testimony  as  to  the  kind  of  care  the  children  in 


114     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCH  WORTH 

them  were  receiving ;  also  to  ascertain  whether  they 
would  receive  what  might  be  regarded  as  their  quotas, 
in  case  all  children  were  removed  from  the  poorhouse. 
A  director  of  one  institution  said  she  would  send  out 
her  matron  and  direct  her  to  select  six  children  whom 
they  would  receive.  She  was  told  that  that  would  not 
answer ;  that  this  movement  meant  the  removal  of  all. 
The  kettle  must  be  cleaned  and  scraped  to  the  bot- 
tom. 

At  my  request  Dr.  H.  P.  Wilber,  the  humane  and 
intelligent  Superintendent  of  the  Asylum  for  Feeble- 
minded Children,  at  Syracuse,  came  to  Buffalo  twice 
to  examine  children  with  reference  to  receiving  them 
there.  He  concluded  to  take  seven,  who  were  not  in- 
tellectually suited  to  orphan-asylum  care.  Among  them 
was  a  crippled  boy,  so  deformed  that  he  could  not 
walk.  His  legs  were  curled  under  his  body,  and  he 
was  obliged  to  sit  through  the  day  on  the  floor.  His 
only  mode  of  locomotion  was  by  placing  his  hands  on 
the  floor  at  right  angles  with  his  wrists  and  arms  and 
lifting  himself  along.  He  was  not  a  bright  boy,  but 
fairly  intelligent.  His  case  was  a  sad  one,  as  his  future 
seemed  pointed  to  a  life  in  the  poorhouse.  Some  two 
years  later,  when  I  was  visiting  the  institution  at  Syr- 
acuse, as  I  stood  in  one  of  the  classrooms,  a  lad  about 
twelve  years  old,  with  a  bright,  smiling  face,  came  to 
me  from  across  the  room,  saying,  "  How  do  you  do, 
Mr.  Letchworth,"  and  advanced  to  shake  hands  with 
me.   Dr.   Wilber  said:  "You  do  not  remember  this 


CHILD-SAVING:   PREVENIENT      115 

boy.    This   is  ,  the  crippled    lad   from   the   Erie 

County  Poorhouse,  who  used  to  walk  with  his  hands." 
I  learned  that  the  efforts  of  Dr.  Wilber,  assisted  by 
physicians  in  Syracuse,  had  enabled  the  boy  to  walk 
erect.  In  exercises  at  the  blackboard  which  I  saw  him 
take  part  in  he  did  not  differ  materially  in  appearance 
from  the  boys  around  him.  As  I  looked  on  his  bright, 
happy  face  and  watched  his  natural  movements  I  could 
not  but  breathe  a  silent  blessing  on  good  Dr.  Wilber. 
All  the  other  boys  taken  from  the  poorhouse  with  the 
cripple  were  promising  pupils,  considering  their  men- 
tal condition. 

With  the  approval  of  the  county  supervisors  and 
the  cooperation  of  the  boards  of  managers  of  the  vari- 
ous orphan  asylums,  all  the  children  were  finally  re- 
moved from  the  poorhouse  and  the  system  of  rearing 
children  there  was  effectually  broken  up. 

In  a  paper  on  the  "Placing-Out  System  in 
Dealing  with  Dependent  Children,"  written 
some  years  ago  by  Mrs.  Robert  McPherson 
(matron  of  the  Buffalo  Orphan  Asylum  at  the 
time  of  this  rescue  of  children  from  the  poor- 
house, and,  later,  the  invaluable  agent  of  the 
Board  of  Supervisors  for  placing  homeless  chil- 
dren in  families),  the  great  deliverance  in  Erie 
County  is  spoken  of  as  having  been  accom- 
plished, in  the  main,  if  not  entirely,  on  one  de- 
finitely named  day.  Said  Mrs.  McPherson:  — 


ii6     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

One  of  the  most  gratifying  and  pleasing  sights  I 
have  ever  witnessed  was  the  exit  of  the  dependent 
children  of  Erie  County,  on  that  memorable  morning 
in  February,  1874,  when  they  were  removed  from 
theirpauper  home  to  happier  surroundings.  As  I  looked 
on  those  interesting  children,  seated  in  the  carriages 
that  had  been  provided  for  their  transfer  to  the  various 
asylums  in  the  city  of  Buffalo,  a  prayer  trembled  on 
my  lips  that  their  future  might  be  one  of  industry, 
honesty,  and  independence.  In  my  general  child-sav- 
ing labor  I  have  been  privileged  to  follow  the  history 
of  many  of  those  children,  and  as  I  see  them  now, — 
self-reliant,  self-sustaining  men  and  women, —  I  real- 
ize how  much  they  owe  to  that  friend  of  children, 
the  Honorable  William  P.  Letchworth,  by  whose  un- 
wearied efforts  and  personal  solicitations  for  their 
admission  to  institutions  they  were  released  from  the 
bondage  of  chronic  pauperism  long  before  the  manda- 
tory law,  compelling  the  removal  of  children  from 
the  poorhouses  of  New  York  State,  was  passed. 

Seemingly  Erie  County  was  the  first  in  the 
state  to  purge  its  poorhouse  of  the  pauperizing 
and  corrupting  mixture  of  children  with  adults. 
Elsewhere  the  reformation  movement  was  slow 
in  response  to  the  strenuous  pressure  upon  it 
which  the  new  State  Commissioner  of  Charities 
was  bringing  to  bear.  Eight  months  after  the 
Erie  County  deliverance  he  wrote  to  Secretary 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT      117 

Hoyt  (October  5,  1874)  that  he  had  received 
reports  of  action  on  the  removal  of  children  by- 
boards  of  supervisors  in  only  three  other  coun- 
ties, namely,  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Yates. 
Throughout  that  year  he  had  been  laboring  as 
no  other  official  in  the  state  is  likely  to  have 
been  laboring  at  the  time.  His  correspondence 
discloses  the  intensity  and  ardor  of  feeling  that 
went  into  his  work ;  his  special  report  to  the 
Board,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  shows  how  big  a 
task  of  inquiry  and  investigation  he  had  per- 
formed, and  what  a  mass  of  information  he  had 
gathered  up.  He  was  executing  a  mission  that 
engaged  his  whole  heart.  He  strove  to  torment 
all  consciences  with  his  own  burning  sense  of 
the  deadly  wrong  done  to  homeless  children 
by  housing  and  classing  them  with  pauperized 
adults.  He  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  allow- 
ing a  single  child  to  be  so  ruined  when  it  might 
be  saved. 

Writing  to  Dr.  Hoyt,  the  secretary  of  the 
Board,  in  August,  he  said  :  "I  am  working  in- 
cessantly ;  almost,  I  might  say,  night  and  day, 
on  the  children  question.  ...  I  hope  you  will 
plead  earnestly  wherever  you  go  for  the  removal 
of  the  children  from  the  poorhouses.  If  by  your 
intercession  a  single  child  is  saved  from  perdi- 


ii8     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCH  WORTH 

tion,  how  vast  are  the  results  and  how  remuner- 
ating the  labor.  I  rely  greatly  on  you  in  carry- 
ing on  this  work,  knowing  your  influence  with 
county  officials." 

In  June  he  had  secured  the  privilege  of 
addressing  a  state  convention  of  the  superintend- 
ents of  the  poor,  at  Rochester,  and  drew  it  into 
an  earnest  discussion  of  the  subject,  resulting  in 
the  adoption  of  a  resolution  that  "  the  superin- 
tendents of  the  poor  of  the  State  of  New  York 
carry  out  as  far  as  practicable  the  recommend- 
ations of  Commissioner  Letchworth."  News- 
paper discussion  was  thus  started,  and  presently 
Mr.  Letchworth  was  enabled  to  gather  up  an 
impressive  body  of  opinion  from  leading  jour- 
nals, together  with  resolutions  from  boards  of 
supervisors  in  different  counties,  and  with  ex- 
pressions from  some  former  governors,  and 
others,  condemning  the  retention  of  children  in 
poorhouses ;  and  this  he  published  in  an  effect- 
ive pamphlet,  to  which  a  wide  distribution  was 
given  —  all  at  his  personal  expense. 

Instances  of  personal  expenditure  in  promo- 
tion of  public  causes,  like  this  of  the  pamphlet 
printing,  were  incessant  throughout  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's  official  career.  For  example,  in  Decem- 
ber of  the  year  we  are  now  reverting  to,  we  find 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT      119 

him  asking  and  receiving  permission  to  print  at 
his  own  expense  a  paper  by  his  colleague,  Presi- 
dent Anderson,  of  Rochester  University,  on 
"Alien  Paupers,"  which  should  have,  as  he 
thought,  a  public  circulation. 

The  special  report  submitted  by  Commissioner 
Letchworth  at  the  close  of  the  year  1 874  showed 

the  number  of  children  remaining  in 

^  First  official 

the  poorhouses   of  the  state  at  the  investiga- 

several  dates  of  inquiry,  in  that  year,  tioi  and 
to  be  615,  of  whom  2^'^  were  boys 
and  253  were  girls.  The  infants  under  two  years 
of  age  numbered  143.  Of  the  remainder,  348 
were  between  two  and  ten  years  of  age ;  1 24  were 
from  ten  to  fifteen  in  years.  The  fathers  of  329 
and  the  mothers  of  115  were  known  to  be  in- 
temperate; 32  were  known  to  be  descendants 
of  pauper  grandfathers  ;  47  of  pauper  grand- 
mothers ;  105  of  pauper  fathers  ;  441  of  pauper 
mothers;  249  had  brothers  and  223  had  sisters 
who  were  or  had  been  paupers;  204  were  of  ille- 
gitimate birth;  190  were  born  in  the  poorhouse. 
Thoughtfully  discussing  the  exhibit  of  dread- 
ful facts,  Mr.  Letchworth  laid  an  impressive 
stress  on  the  deadliness  of  the  effect  on  charac- 
ter in  childhood  which  must  be  produced  by 
such  pauperizing  examples  and  influences  as  a 


120     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCH  WORTH 

poorhouse  surrounds  them  with.  "  A  study  into 
the  history  of  pauperism,"  he  wrote,  "  shows  that 
this  condition  is  rarely  reached  except  through 
a  gradual  *  letting-down '  process,  sometimes 
descending  through  two  or  more  generations 
before  culminating."  Hence  the  vital  import- 
ance of  breaking  up  that  degenerative  process 
at  the  point  of  its  passage  from  one  generation 
to  another,  by  removing  children  "from  poor- 
house  life  and  its  stigma,"  "  to  place  them,  im- 
mediately upon  their  sinking  to  the  line  of  pub- 
lic dependence  and  before  being  stigmatized  as 
paupers,  among  such  surroundings  and  under 
such  remedial  influences  as  shall  be  likely  to  re- 
claim them." 

Of  the  labor  which  his  report  represented  and 
the  difficulties  encountered  in  it  he  gave  some 
indication,  saying  that  it  had  occupied  his  entire 
time,  with  that  of  an  assistant,  —  employed  by 
himself,  which  fact  he  did  not  state.  He  adds: 
"  A  widely  extended  field  has  been  travelled 
over.  I  have  found  the  records  relating  to  this 
and  kindred  subjects  very  incomplete,  and  some- 
times difficult  to  reach.  .  .  .  Previous  to  the 
convening  of  the  boards  of  supervisors,  the  re- 
cords of  the  proceedings  of  the  boards  of  such 
counties  as  had  taken  action  in  reference  to  the 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT      121 

care  and  maintenance  of  their  pauper  children 
elsewhere  than  in  the  poorhouse  were  carefully 
examined,  so  far  as  they  were  accessible,  for  a 
period  extending  back  from  fifteen  to  twenty 
years.  The  difficulty  of  reaching  the  reports  of 
the  several  boards  made  the  work  of  compiling 
this  material  protracted  and  laborious.  Printed 
proceedings  of  the  boards  of  supervisors  were 
in  many  cases  not  found  on  file  in  the  county 
clerk's  offices  of  the  several  counties,  and,  when 
found,  were  seldom  properly  indexed." 

Thus  far  in  the  undertaking  to  bring  about  a 
removal  of  dependent  children  from  association 
with  adult  paupers  there  had  been  g 
nothing  but  persuasion  and  some  mandatory 
pressure  of  public  opinion  to  bring  legislation 
to  bear  on  the  local  authorities  concerned.  Now 
Commissioner  Letchworth  invoked  the  aid  of 
mandatory  law.  Calling  attention  to  the  fact 
that,  by  statute,  it  had  already  been  made  "ob- 
ligatory upon  county  officials  to  transfer  every 
deaf-mute  child  of  a  certain  age,  becoming  a  de- 
pendent, to  asylums  for  instruction,"  and  that 
virtually  the  same  had  been  done  in  the  case 
of  other  defectives,  he  asked  "  whether  a  statute 
extending  the  benefits  of  this  principle  to  other 
dependent  children  would  not  be  desirable, — 


122     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

requiring  county  officials  to  place  in  families  or 
fitting  asylums  all  children  over  two  years  of 
age,  excepting  unteachable  idiots  and  others  un- 
fitted for  family  care,  who  become  dependent, 
and  prohibiting  their  being  hereafter  committed 
to  poorhouses." 

On  this  suggestion  the  State  Board  of  Chari- 
ties, at  the  meeting  to  which  the  report  con- 
taining it  was  submitted,  acted  promptly,  and 
recommended  in  its  general  report  to  the  legis- 
lature that  "  the  commitment  of  children  of 
intelligence  over  two  years  of  age  to  county 
poorhouses  be  hereafter  prohibited  by  statute, 
and  that  the  proper  authorities  be  required  to 
remove  all  such  children  now  in  those  institu- 
tions and  provide  for  them  otherwise,  within  a 
reasonable,  specified  time."  The  legislature  re- 
sponded with  equal  promptitude,  passing  a 
mandatory  act  which  declared  that  on  and  after 
January  i,  1876,  no  child  over  three  and  under 
sixteen  years  of  age,  of  proper  intelligence  and 
suited  for  family  care  should  be  committed  or 
sent  to  any  county  poorhouse  of  the  state,  and 
that  all  children  of  this  class  then  in  the  county 
poorhouses  should,  within  the  time  named,  be 
removed  from  such  poorhouses  and  provided 
for  in  families,  asylums,  or  other  appropriate 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT      123 

institutions.  The  law  enjoined  the  boards  of 
supervisors  of  the  several  counties  to  take  such 
action  in  the  matter  as  might  be  necessary  to 
carry  out  its  provisions. 

With  this  backing  of  positive  law  and  the 
hearty  cooperation  of  his  colleagues  in  the  State 
Board  of  Charities,  Commissioner  jj^^^gg  ^q. 
Letchworth,  in  his  special  mission  homeless 
of  child-saving  from  pauperism,  had  <^hildren 
only  to  contend  thereafter  with  difficulties  in 
some  counties  that  arose  from  a  present  defi- 
ciency of  institutions  to  which  the  pauper  child- 
ren could  be  removed.  He  had  satisfied  himself 
that,  generally  throughout  the  state,  the  required 
transfers  could  be  made  without  overtaxing  the 
capacity  of  existing  asylums,  etc.,  provided  that 
proper  exertions  were  made  systematically  at 
the  asylums  to  place  their  children  in  families  — 
which  ought  to  be  the  constant  aim.  This  now 
gave  him  a  new  special  duty  —  to  inspire  earn- 
estness and  energy  in  the  work  of  securing  good 
family  homes  for  the  homeless  children  of  the 
state,  to  the  end  that  no  public  asylum  for  such 
children,  of  good  promise  in  body  and  mind, 
should  be  conducted  otherwise  than  as  an  agency 
for  their  early  introduction  to  family  life  in  re- 
putable private  homes. 


124     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

In  a  paper  read  by  Mr.  Letchworth  before 
the  State  Charities  Aid  Association,  after  the 
passage  of  the  Act  of  1875,  called  "the  Child- 
ren's Act,"  he  said  :  — 

It  was  thought  at  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the  Act 
of  1875  (chapter  173),  for  the  better  care  of  pauper 
and  destitute  children,  which  required  that  they  should 
be  removed  from  poorhouses  prior  to  the  ist  of  Jan- 
uary, 1876,  that  accommodation  existed  in  the  state 
for  all  children  of  this  class  in  families  and  orphan- 
ages. This  proved  to  be  the  case.  The  children  were 
either  placed  in  families  by  the  officials,  or  orphanages 
were  availed  of  for  their  disposal.  In  many  of  the 
latter  a  more  vigorous  placing-out  policy  was  adopted, 
and  thus  the  emergency  of  providing  for  the  great 
number  of  liberated  children  was  promptly  met.  .  .  . 
I  look  upon  the  orphan  asylum — call  it  by  what 
name  you  please,  orphanage,  home  of  the  friendless, 
or  aught  else,  so  that  it  be  conducted  on  the  principle 
of  a  temporary  home — as  being  the  most  expeditious 
and  efficacious  means  of  restoring  the  child  to  family 
life.  .  .  .  The  children  once  within  the  institution, 
it  would  appear  then  to  be  in  keeping  with  sound 
policy  to  encourage  the  placing  of  them  in  families 
as  quickly  as  they  are  prepared  to  enter.  The  case 
of  every  child  upon  entering  an  orphanage  should  be 
carefully  considered  with  reference  to  its  fitness  for 
the  family,  and  all  habits  and  practices  that  might  in 


CHILD-SAVING:   PREVENIENT      125 

any  way  lead  to  dissatisfaction  and  perhaps  subsequent 
expulsion  from  a  good  family  should  be  well  under- 
stood and  eradicated,  if  possible,  by  special  training, 
before  attempting  to  place  it  out. 

Longer  experience  convinced  him  that  a  state 
supervision  of  the  "  placing-out"  of  orphaned 
children  in  private  homes  was  neces-  Yinal  opin- 
sary  to  prevent  serious  results  from  ions 
carelessness  in  that  important  undertaking.  In 
a  paper  on  "  Dependent  Children  and  Family 
Homes,"  read  at  the  National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Corrections,  in  Toronto,  1897,  ^^ 
said :  — 

In  my  observations,  extending  through  twenty-three 
years  of  official  inspection  as  a  State  Commissioner  of 
Charities  in  New  York,  I  found  the  wrongs  which 
dependent  children  suffered  from  being  placed  in  un- 
suitable homes,  through  indifference  before  placing 
them  and  inattention  and  neglect  afterwards,  to  be  very 
great.  Legislators  and  philanthropists,  however,  are 
devoting  their  attention  to  correcting  this  evil.  In  the 
last  session  of  the  New  York  Legislature  a  bill  was 
introduced  under  the  auspices  of  the  State  Board  of 
Charities  providing  that  the  work  of  placing  out  de- 
pendent children  and  of  supervising  them  afterwards 
should  be  governed  by  rules  established  by  the  State 
Board  of  Charities.   The  legislature  added  a  clause  to 


126     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

the  effect  that  all  dependent  children  should  be  placed 
with  foster  parents  of  the  same  religious  faith  as  the 
child. 

As  this  could  not  always  be  practicable  it  was 
opposed,  and  the  Governor  disapproved  the  bill. 
In  further  remarks  on  the  subject,  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  summarized  the  provisions  of  law  in  sev- 
eral states,  and  urged  that,  in  every  state,  "  a 
system  should  be  provided  regulating  the  man- 
ner in  which  homeless  children  shall  be  placed 
in  families,  and  providing  a  method  of  super- 
vision over  them  afterwards  which  is  not  obtru- 
sive or  offensive  to  foster  parents." 

One  of  the  last  official  writings  of  Commis- 
sioner Letchworth,  before  his  resignation  from 
the  State  Board  of  Charities,  gives  some  inter- 
esting details  of  the  experience  which  had  led 
him  to  the  conclusions  set  forth  above.  It  is  a 
report  to  the  Board  "On  the  Erie  County  Sys- 
tem of  Placing  Dependent  Children  in  Fami- 
lies," dated  November  14,  1896.  It  explains 
that  "the  plan  of  placing  dependent  children  in 
family  homes  by  a  county  agent  was  put  in 
operation  in  Erie  County  in  1878  ";  that  a  sal- 
aried county  agent  was  appointed,  "authorized 
to  remove  children  that  were  county  charges 
from  the  asylums  and  to  place  them  in  families, 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT       127 

either  by  adoption,  by  indenture  through  papers 
executed  by  the  superintendent  of  the  poor,  or 
by  verbal  agreement."  "  Mrs.  Robert  McPher- 
son  was  the  first  agent  appointed.  She  had  had 
large  previous  experience  in  placing  out  child- 
ren, and  she  did  her  work  carefully  and  consci- 
entiously. In  1 88 1  It  became  evident  that  It 
was  Impracticable  for  one  person  to  do  all  the 
work,  and  provision  was  made  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  an  additional  agent  to  place  out  Roman 
Catholic  children."  In  the  next  year  Mrs.  Mc- 
Pherson  retired  from  the  work. 

In  the  early  part  of  1896  certain  cases  were 
brought  to  the  attention  of  Mr.  Letchworth 
which  led  him  to  Institute  an  investigation  of 
the  workings  of  this  county  agency,  and  his 
report  recites  with  considerable  detail  the  re- 
sulting disclosures,  on  which  he  remarks:  — 

It  is  impossible  to  suppress  the  conviction  that  great 
mistakes,  if  not  wrongs,  have  been  committed,  when 
it  is  seen  that  careful  search  for  some  of  the  addresses 
given  failed  to  reveal  the  homes  where  children  were 
reported  to  have  been  placed;  that  information  was 
obtained  to  the  effect  that  a  house  in  which  a  child  had 
been  placed  by  one  of  the  agents  had  been  raided   by 

the  police  ;   that  Mrs.  ,  who  took  a  child,  kept 

a  house  of  assignation  ;  that  a  foster  father  was  an  ex- 


128     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

pugilist  and  a  foster  mother  "slung  beer";  and  that 
certain  families  who  took  children  were  receiving  pub- 
lic relief.  .  .  .  From  the  examination  I  have  made  of 
the  Erie  County  methods  of  placing  out  children,  and 
from  instances  of  grave  abuse  that  have  come  to  my 
knowledge  affecting  dependent  children  placed  out  by 
various  public  officers,  agents  and  agencies  in  other 
counties,  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  sys- 
tem of  placing  out  children  in  this  state  should  be  rad- 
ically reformed  ;  and  I  respectfully  recommend  that 
this  important  subject  receive  the  deliberate  consider- 
ation of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  of  the  legis- 
lature, in  order  that  a  proper  system  may  be  adopted 
throughout  the  state,  which  shall  secure  good  homes 
to  the  dependent  children  placed  out,  and  embrace  of- 
ficial supervision  and  ample  protection  over  them,  after 
they  have  left  the  guardianship  of  asylums  and  officers 
of  the  poor. 

Mr.  Letchworth's  long  experience  brought 
him  finally  to  the  further  conviction  that  insti- 
tutions provided  for  the  care  of  homeless  child- 
ren should  be  brought  into  closer  relations  to 
the  state  and  more  closely  supervised.  This  is 
indicated  in  an  undated  memorandum,  found 
among  his  papers  after  his  death.  "  I  regard 
the  child-saving  work,"  he  says  in  this,  "  as 
the  most  effectual  means  of  upbuilding  society, 
of  reducing  the  volume  of  pauperism  and  crime, 


CHILD-SAVING:    PREVENIENT      129 

and  of  lessening  the  burdens  of  taxation";  and 
he  argues  that  this  work  should  be  partly  at 
public  and  partly  at  private  cost,  proceeding  to 
say :  "  I  am  therefore  led  to  believe,  after  a 
study  of  the  different  systems  of  caring  for 
homeless  children  in  different  countries,  that 
the  institutions  we  call  orphan  asylums,  child- 
ren's homes,  and  juvenile  reformatories,  should 
receive  a  per  capita  allowance  for  each  child 
under  their  care ;  that  this  allowance  should  be 
determined  by  the  legislature,  but  should  not 
be  so  large  as  fully  to  support  the  child,  or  to 
carry  on  the  work  of  the  institution,  but  leave 
a  reasonable  margin  to  be  supplied  from  pri- 
vate means,  in  order  to  maintain  an  active  and 
benevolent  interest  in  the  work  conducted  by 
these  private  corporations.  These  institutions 
I  would  have  placed  under  the  supervision  of 
the  Department  of  State, — a  purely  disinter- 
ested body,  free  from  political  or  religious  bias, 
—  and  organized  after  the  manner  of  some  of 
our  state  boards  of  charities." 

The  memorandum  goes  on  to  suggest  that 
the  institutions  thus  privately  created  and  con- 
ducted, but  partly  supported  by  the  state,  should 
be  licensed  by  a  State  Board,  and  be  subject  to 
yearly  examination,  on  which  the  yearly  renewal 


130     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

of  their  licenses  should  be  made  to  depend.  "  In 
licensing  the  institution  the  question  of  religious 
instruction,  whether  Roman  Catholic,  Protestant, 
or  Hebrew,  should  be  left  to  the  choice  and  dis- 
cretion of  the  board  of  management.  It  should 
be  provided,  however,  that  the  secular  education 
of  the  inmates  should  be  in  accordance  with  the 
rules  and  regulations  of  the  State  Department 
of  Public  Instruction." 

The  remarkable  effectiveness  of  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's  work  as  a  commissioner  of  the  State 
The  valuing  Board  of  Charities  was  now  recog- 
of  his  work  nized  by  all  who  gave  attention  to 
the  governmental  dealing  with  want  and  mis- 
doing. They  saw  that  a  new  force  had  come 
into  that  field  of  official  service,  and  they  wel- 
comed it  with  acclaim.  For  example,  the  very 
eminent  sociologist.  Dr.  Elisha  Harris,  then 
Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Prison  Associa- 
tion of  New  York,  afterward  Secretary  of  the 
State  Board  of  Health,  wrote  to  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  in  March,  1875:  "Your  study  of  the 
rights  of  children  and  of  our  duty  to  them  and 
the  state  is  worth  a  lifetime  of  toil.  You  have 
thrown  such  a  true  light  on  the  almshouse  child- 
ren that    the  doors  of  good  homes   and    the 


WILLIAM    PRYOR   LETCHWORTH   WHILE   PRESIDENT  OF 
THE   NEW   YORK   STATE   BOARD   OF   CHARITIES 


CHILD-SAVING:   PREVENIENT      131 

hearts  of  thoughtful  citizens  and  good  women 
will  open  and  bless  them."  Six  months  later  we 
find  Dr.  Harris  writing  again  :  "It  is  by  such 
persistenteffort  as  yours  for  the  friendless  child- 
ren that  causes  of  crime  and  vice  are  to  be  re- 
pressed. It  is  not  in  the  power  of  language 
to  convey  my  thanks  for  your  service  in  this 
matter." 

With  still  more  warmth  did  Miss  Louise  Lee 
Schuyler,  President  of  the  State  Charities  Aid 
Society,  express  her  feeling  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Letchworth  written  on  the  last  day  of  that  im- 
portant year  1875.  "I  cannot,"  she  said,  "  let 
this  day  go  by  without  telling  you  how  deeply 
I  sympathize  in  your  happiness  at  the  thought 
of  the  hundreds  of  little  ones  whom  you  have, 
with  the  help  of  God,  been  instrumental  in  res- 
cuing from  lives  of  suffering  and  crime.  All  day 
I  have  thought  of  the  little  children  I  have  seen 
—  oh!  so  uncared  for  in  those  horrible  poor- 
houses  ;  and  to  know  that  to-day  they  are  away 
and  happy  (the  last  Randall's  Island  children 
left  to-day)  makes  me  very  happy.  T^hey  must 
never  go  back.  And  if  those  of  us  who  are  grate- 
ful for  having  been  allowed  to  help  you  in  the 
smallest  way  in  your  great  work  feel  this,  how 
grateful  you  must  be  that  God  has  allowed  you 


132     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

to  do  such  blessed  work.  I  know  how  devoted 
you  have  been  to  it,  how  self-sacrificing  and 
faithful.  Surely  you  have  the  reward  of  those 
who  '  go  about  doing  good,*  —  the  deep  joy  and 
peace  of  those  who  are  doing  their  Master's 
bidding.  Your  New  Year  will  indeed  be  a  happy 


one. 


The  year  1875  ^^^  °^^  ^^  ^^^  busiest  for 
Commissioner  Letchworth  In  his  special  en- 
Employment  deavor  to  arrest  the  pauperizing  of 
for  paupers  children  ;  but  that  undertaking  did 
not  absorb  his  whole  thought.  In  his  visitation 
of  the  county  poorhouses  he  saw  an  amount  of 
able-bodied  and  idle  pauperism  in  them  that 
was  profoundly  offensive  to  his  sense  of  reason 
and  right.  He  brought  the  subject  before  the 
annual  state  convention  of  superintendents  of 
the  poor,  in  June  of  that  year.  "  My  idea  of  a 
poorhouse,"  he  said  to  them,  "  and  when  I  say 
poorhouse  I  use  the  term  as  synonymous  with 
almshouse,  is  that  it  should  be  a  retreat  for  in- 
valids, or  those  incapacitated  to  earn  a  liveli- 
hood. In  other  words,  that  a  poorhouse  should 
be  a  hospital,  and  that  there  should  be  barely 
enough  healthy  inmates,  or  of  those  in  partial 
health,  to  care  for  the  invalids.  .  .  .  Beyond  this, 
I  hold  that  able-bodied  paupers  have  no  place 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT      133 

in  a  poorhouse.  Strictly  speaking,  the  term 
*  able-bodied  pauper '  is  contradictory.  The  stat- 
ute, as  you  are  aware,  as  found  in  Wade's  Code 
relating  to  the  poor,  section  20,  page  10,  does 
not  accord  to  healthy,  able-bodied  persons  this 
kind  of  public  charity.  The  precise  language 
used  is,  — '  that  every  poor  person  who  is  blind, 
lame,  old,  sick,  impotent,  or  decrepit,  or  in  any 
other  way  disabled  or  enfeebled  so  as  to  be  un- 
able by  his  work  to  maintain  himself,  shall  be 
maintained  by  the  county  or  town  in  which  he 
may  be.'  If,  notwithstanding,  such  as  are  able- 
bodied  must  be  sent  to  poorhouses,  I  think 
they  should  be  committed  for  a  stated  period, 
in  order  that,  when  put  to  work  by  the  keeper, 
he  may  know  how  long  he  can  rely  upon  their 
labor,  and  how  much  time  he  can  profitably  ex- 
pend in  giving  instruction."  He  then  proceeded 
to  discuss  in  a  very  practical  way  the  kinds  of 
employment  that  could  be  given  to  such  able- 
bodied  inmates  of  the  poorhouses.  Firstly, 
needed  labor  for  a  considerable  number  could 
be  applied  to  the  "  bringing  of  the  poorhouse 
farm  into  the  highest  condition  of  productive- 
ness, and  its  outbuildings  into  the  best  of  order." 
Secondly,  they  could  be  employed  on  the  roads 
of  the  poorhouse  neighborhood,  spending  this 


134     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

pauper  labor  on  them  until  they  are  made  "  as 
substantial  as  the  old  Roman  roads."  Thirdly, 
basket-making  and  the  culture  of  the  willow 
for  its  material  offer  an  easily  opened  field  for  the 
employment  of  this  kind  of  labor.  And  there 
are  other  openings  to  be  found,  if  they  are 
sought.  His  propositions  were  approved  and 
endorsed  by  the  convention,  and  nobody  having 
anything  to  do  with  poorhouse  management 
could  by  any  possibility  gainsay  them  ;  but  it  is 
probable  that  "able-bodied  paupers"  can  still 
be  found  in  our  poorhouses,  while  the  roads  of 
their  neighborhood  are  not  yet  "as  substantial 
as  the  old  Roman  roads." 

The  main  task  of  Mr.  Letchworth  in  1875 
was  to  learn  for  himself  and  to  report  to  his 
board  and  to  the  public  the  existing  resources 
of  the  state  orphan  asylums  and  other  institu- 
tions provided  for  the  care  of  dependent  children, 
and  the  conditions  in  each  under  which  such  care 
was  being  given.  So  thoroughly  was  this  exten- 
sive survey  carried  out  that  the  special  report 
of  it,  presented  by  Commissioner  Letchworth 
at  the  end  of  the  year,  fills  510  pages  of  the 
general  report  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
for  1875. 

Along  with  the  preparation  of  that  report  there 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT     135 

went,  moreover,  an  important  continuation  of 
the  poorhouse  investigation  of  1874;  and  this, 
too,  was  reported  within  the  year.   It  investigat- 
related  to  the  children's  department  *°s  child- 

r     1  1        1  11-1  r  pauperism 

or  the  almshouse  establishments  or  jq  New  York 
New  York  City,  of  which  Mr.  Letch-  City 
worth's  investigation  had  not  been  finished  in 
time  for  inclusion  in  the  report  of  the  previous 
year.  It  does  not  seem  to  have  been  intended 
by  the  legislature  that  the  Act  of  1875,  requir- 
ing the  removal  of  children  from  poorhouses, 
should  apply  to  the  almshouses  of  New  York 
City,  which  are  under  the  control  of  a  board  of 
commissioners  ;  but  the  courts  gave  a  construc- 
tion to  the  law  which  extended  it  to  those  insti- 
tutions. "  Then  was  presented,"  as  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  said  afterwards,  in  writing  of  events  at 
this  time,  "  the  curious  spectacle]of  a  change  in 
the  opinions  of  the  metropolitan  press;  for  while 
it  had  fully  realized  and  condemned  the  system 
of  poorhouse  care  for  children  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts, its  continuance  was  thought  necessary  in 
the  large  city  almshouses.  Accordingly  an  appeal 
was  made  to  the  legislature  to  exempt  New  York 
City  from  the  operation  of  the  law."  Probably 
nothing  but  Commissioner  Letchworth's  inves- 
tigation could  have  prevented  such  legislative 


136     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

action.  It  gave  the  authority  of  knowledge  to 
his  remonstrances,  even  before  the  publication 
of  his  official  report  of  facts  disclosed. 

The  establishments  maintained  by  the  county 
and  city  of  New  York  for  the  care  of  pauper 
The  Ran-  children,  located  on  Randall's  Island, 
dall's  Island  comprised  an  infant  or  foundling  hos- 
Nursery"  pjj-^i^  ^j^  idiot  asylum,  a  nursery  hos- 
pital, and  "  The  Nursery."  The  report  of  Com- 
missioner Letchworth  related  mainly  to  the  two 
institutions  last  named,  in  which  were  545  boys 
and  224  girls.  "  During  the  past  year,"  hewTOte, 
"  I  have  made  several  visitations  to  these  estab- 
lishments, accompanied  on  one  occasion  by  Com- 
missioner Roosevelt.  These  visits  were  made 
with  a  competent  stenographer.  The  buildings 
and  inmates  were  carefully  inspected  and  a  mi- 
nute inquiry  made  into  the  methods  of  admin- 
istration." 

In  this  part  of  hisinvestigations  he  was  assisted 
by  his  close  friend,  Mr.  James  N.  Johnston, 
whose  "  rare  tact,  discrimination,  and  persever- 
ance" he  spoke  of  some  years  later,  when  re- 
ferring to  the  work  of  this  period,  as  having 
been  invaluable  to  him.  Mr.  Johnston,  he  said, 
had  undertaken  what  he  did  "for  the  love  of 
the  work,  and  for  the  good  expected  to  result 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT      137 

from  it,  rather  than  for  any  pecuniary  considera- 
tion." How  difficult  and  trying  the  task  was  on 
which  Mr.  Johnston  spent  a  month  of  keen  in- 
quisition at  Randall's  Island  is  revealed  in  his 
letters  to  Mr.  Letchworth  written  during  that 
month  of  December,  1 874.  "  There  is  no  super- 
intendent, keeper,  or  matron,"  he  wrote  in  one, 
"who  knows  the  history  of  any  of  the  children 
or  cares  a  fig  about  it.  The  sources  of  informa- 
tion, then,  are  the  children  themselves  and  the 
books.  The  facts  elicited  from  the  class  of  child- 
ren, at  their  tender  ages,  are  very  unreliable.  .  .  . 
The  books  give  only  the  so-called  age,  the  date 
of  admission  and  discharge,  and  who  brought 
the  child  to  the  Almshouse  Nursery."  Of  the 
training  received  by  these  children  he  wrote : 
"  Generally,  the  children  in  the  school  are  not 
very  far  behind  in  their  studies,  for  the  class 
they  represent ;  but  they  are  far  behind  in  the 
training  that  children  should  have  to  make  them 
citizens  of  the  Republic.  The  school,  as  you 
know,  is  under  the  Board  of  Education,  and 
quite  a  corps  of  teachers  is  employed.  .  .  .  The 
women  and  employees  about  the  place  (I  do 
not  refer  to  the  teachers)  are,  to  say  the  least, 
hardly  of  the  class  to  train  young  minds  to  noble 
thoughts." 


138     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Among  the  facts  set  forth  by  Commissioner 
Letchworth  in  his  report  were  the  following : 
"  In  the  dense  buildings  of  the  Nursery  and 
Nursery  Hospitals,  grouped  quite  closely  to- 
gether, there  were  at  the  time  of  the  examina- 
tion of  this  Board  773  girls  and  boys  under 
sixteen  years  of  age.  Brought  into  more  or  less 
intimate  association  with  these  tender  natures, 
were  23  females  who  had,  either  through  mis- 
fortune or  some  controlling  weakness  of  charac- 
ter, sunk  into  the  rank  of  the  dependent  class. 
There  were  also  51  females  who  had  drifted 
downward  and  had  sunk  into  the  rank  of  the 
criminal  class,  many  of  them,  as  has  been  shown, 
having  been  committed  again  and  again  for 
drunkenness  and  disorderly  conduct,  for  street 
brawls  and  other  offences  which  had  rendered 
them  amenable  to  penal  servitude.  There  were 
also,  going  and  coming  on  various  duties,  40 
male  adults  belonging  to  the  pauper  and  crim- 
inal classes,  making,  in  all,  114  persons  who 
were  at  the  time  either  actually  paupers  or  crim- 
inals, or  had  been  committed  at  some  time  as 
such,  . . .  brought  more  or  less  into  contact  with 
the  children.  Even  with  the  strictest  rules  for- 
bidding it,  the  association  of  the  children  with 
these  persons  must,  from  the  nature  of  the  case. 


CHILD-SAVING:   PREVENIENT      139 

be  inevitable ;  but,  so  far  as  our  observations 
went,  the  rules  did  not  even  appear  to  forbid  it." 
In  this  connection  Mr.  Letchworth  quoted  from 
a  paper  read  at  a  recent  congress  of  state  boards 
of  charities,  written  by  the  well-known  English 
leader  in  charity  work.  Miss  Mary  Carpenter, 
who  had  visited  the  Randall's  Island  "  Nur- 
sery," while  in  this  country,  and  who  wrote  of 
it :  "  Seldom  have  I  witnessed  a  more  soul-sick- 
ening spectacle  than  the  degraded  women  and 
incapable  men  having  the  charge  of  these  child- 
ren. 

The  most  damning  fact  disclosed  in  Mr. 
Letchworth's  report  was  that  stated  in  the  fol- 
lowing paragraph  :  "  Over  this  large  community 
[of  the  Randall's  Island  institutions  —  pauper 
and  criminal — as  a  whole],  with  a  considerable 
extent  of  harbor  shore,  one  nightwatch  holds 
guard.  The  abuses  which  may  result  during  the 
night  hours  to  the  helpless  and  unprotected 
may  easily  be  imagined.  On  being  questioned 
the  watchman  said  :  'I  walk  around  the  hospi- 
tal and  go  through  every  building  except  the 
girls'  department.  The  workhouse  women  are 
not  locked  up  at  night.  They  go  up  at  seven 
o'clock  in  the  evening.  There  is  nothing  to 
prevent  their  going  out  and  getting  around  the 


140     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

grounds,  unless  I  am  around.  When  I  came 
here  first  I  was  disturbed  by  the  boats  coming 
to  assist  the  women  away.'  It  will  be  borne  in 
mind  that  here  is  an  island  with  miles  of  shore, 
abundance  of  ambush,  subject  to  abuse  within 
and  without,  and  one  night  watchman  over  the 
nursery." 

The  report  submitted  abundant  reasons  for 
the  conclusion  to  which  it  led,  "that  the  whole 
Randall's  Island  Nursery  system  should  be  set 
aside  agreeably  to  the  statute,  and  that  the  child- 
ren should  be  placed  in  asylums  suited  to  their 
various  needs,  under  the  charge  of  those  de- 
voted to  the  interests  of  the  young,  or  into  good 
families  where  they  may  be  trained  and  edu- 
cated to  useful  and  respectable  citizenship." 
"  The  King's  County  nursery  system  was  bad 
enough,"  continued  the  report,  "but  this  is  in- 
finitely worse.  That  was  not  abolished  by  force 
of  legal  enactment  alone,  but  by  the  exercise  of 
an  enlightened  public  sentiment." 

Enlightened  public  sentiment,  however,  could 
not  move  Tammany  to  give  up  so  important  a 
part  of  the  profitable  machinery  of  its  politics, 
nor  would  it  surrender  to  a  legal  enactment 
without  contesting  it  to  the  last.  It  was  a  weak- 
ened "Ring"  at  this  time,  not  yet  recovered 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT     141 

from  the  great  overthrow  of  187 1  ;  but  it  was 
busily  and  hopefully  laboring  to  reconstruct  the 
vicious  fabric  of  its  power,  into  which  went  just 
such  material  as  the  Randall's  Island  institu- 
tions supplied.  Naturally,  therefore,  the  sym- 
pathetic politicians  of  the  legislature  were  being 
besought  again  to  release  New  York  County 
from  the  operation  of  the  law,  and  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  had  grave  fears  that  the  Tammany  de- 
mand would  prevail.  Writing  to  Mr.  Johnston 
on  the  8th  of  December,  1875,  ^^  ^^^^  :  "  I  do 
not  feel  safe  from  some  reactionary  steps  by 
the  legislature  in  the  Randall's  Island  matter. 
There  is  certainly  reason  for  grave  apprehen- 
sion ;  but  I  shall  do  all  that  I  think  it  is  becom- 
ing for  me  to  do,  in  view  of  the  position  I  hold, 
and  trust  to  God's  providence  for  results.  .  .  . 
As  to  the  treatment  of  the  subject,  I  see  but 
one  way  to  handle  it.  If  taken  hold  of  at  all  it 
must  be  done  fearlessly.  *  God's  truth  '  must  be 
told." 

In  this  spirit  he  gave  battle  to  the  politicians, 
leading  and  inspiring  all  the  forces  that  could 
be  rallied  against  them,  for  the  rescuing  of  the 
pauperized  children  of  Randall's  Island  from 
the  evil  influences  they  wished  to  maintain.  In 
private  letters  he  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the 


142     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

conditions  at  Randall's  Island  were  the  worst  in 
the  state  and  the  most  needing  to  be  reformed 
under  the  new  law.  To  the  conductors  of  the 
New  York  World  and  the  New  York  Sun^ 
which  had  joined  the  cry  for  an  exemption  of 
New  York  County  from  the  requirements  of 
the  law,  he  appealed  for  a  suspension  of  judg- 
ment on  the  question  until  the  report  of  his 
investigations  could  be  laid  before  them.  For 
some  weeks  he  spared  no  effort  to  arouse  in- 
fluences that  would  overcome  those  working  at 
Albany  from  the  political  rings  of  New  York; 
and  his  efforts  were  not  in  vain.  He  succeeded, 
as  he  succeeded  almost  always,  in  defeating  op- 
position from  ignorant  sources  or  sinister  mo- 
tives to  measures  and  undertakings  which  he 
believed,  on  well-studied  grounds,  to  be  for  the 
public  good. 

This    was    the    second    demonstration    that 
Commissioner   Letchworth,  in  his  official  serv- 

An  exhibit  ^'^^>  ^^^  g^^^"  °^  ^^^  ^^'■y  potent 
of  strong  and  peculiar  executive  force  he  pos- 
qualities  sessed.  One  of  the  mildest,  most 
gently  mannered  of  men, —  Quaker-bred,  and 
realizing  in  his  whole  character  the  ideals  of 
that  culture  of  the  quiet  spirit,  —  he  was  capable, 
nevertheless,  at  need,  of  an  iron  determination 


CHILD-SAVING:   PREVENIENT     143 

in  what  he  undertook  to  do,  and  a  persistence 
which  never  tired,  never  yielded  to  discourage- 
ment, and  rarely  suffered  defeat.  His  first  ex- 
hibit of  those  qualities  was  called  out  soon  after 
he  took  his  seat  in  the  State  Board  of  Chari- 
ties. The  Board  was  then  becoming  an  object 
of  attacks,  inspired  evidently  by  the  manipula- 
tors of  party  politics,  who  had  discovered  that 
it  might  be  made  a  useful  instrument  in  their 
hands.  The  enlarged  powers  conferred  on  it  in 
1873  appear  to  have  equipped  it  to  their  liking, 
as  a  piece  of  machinery  for  political  work,  and 
they  lost  no  time  in  starting  measures  for 
bringing  it  under  their  control.  An  account  of 
what  occurred  was  written  subsequently  by  Mr. 
Letchworth,  as  follows  :  — 

As  I  was  coming  down  Main  Street,  in  Buffalo, 
one  morning  in  the  early  part  of  1874,  I  met  Mr. 
Joseph  Warren,  editor  of  the  Buffalo  •■'  Courier," 
who  had  just  left  the  train  after  a  night's  ride  from 
Albany.  He  informed  me  that  action  had  been  taken 
in  the  Senate  the  day  before  to  abolish  the  State 
Board  of  Charities.  I  asked  him  upon  what  grounds. 
He  could  not  tell  me,  but  supposed  it  was  in  conse- 
quence of  some  irregularities.  I  told  him  that  this 
was  not  possible,  in  view  of  the  personnel  of  the 
Board  and  lack  of  opportunity  on  the  part  of  the  com- 


144     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

missioners  for  deriving  any  personal  advantage  from 
their  office.  He  had  given  little  attention  to  the  mat- 
ter, but,  as  he  then  recalled  what  he  had  heard,  there 
was  some  whispered  scandal  connected  with  the 
movement. 

I  went  immediately  to  Albany  and,  seeking  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Board  [Mr.  John  V.  L.  Pruyn] ,  asked  him 
the  meaning  of  the  attack.  He  could  only  divine  that 
it  was  a  political  movement  to  bring  the  Board  event- 
ually under  partisan  control,  as  were  the  state  prisons, 
over  which  there  was  but  one  superintendent.  The 
movement  had  such  backing  that  Mr.  Pruyn  thought 
nothing  could  be  done.  He  had  heard  from  several 
members  of  the  Board,  who  expressed  themselves  as 
excessively  chagrined  and  mortified,  and  declared  their 
intention  to  resign.  I  told  the  president  that  I  had  not 
sought  this  office ;  that  I  had  endeavored  to  discharge 
my  duties  faithfully  during  the  short  time  I  had  held  it ; 
that  I  regarded  this  action  as  a  reflection  on  my  integ- 
rity, and  that  I  should  not  rest  quietly  under  it,  but 
should  demand  an  official  investigation.  He  sympa- 
thized with  the  members  of  the  Board  in  their  chagrin, 
but  did  not  feel  like  entering  into  an  angry  controversy 
over  the  action  taken.  He  said,  however,  that  he  would 
sanction  every  effort  I  might  make  to  protect  the 
Board.  With  this  assurance  from  the  president  I 
entered  upon  the  campaign. 

Senator  Ganson,  of  Buffalo,  a  man  of  high  charac- 
ter and  a  leader  of  one  of  the  political  parties,  and 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT      145 

Senator  King,  leader  of  the  opposite  political  party  and 
chairman  of  the  Senate  finance  committee,  —  a  man 
of  benevolent  impulses,  —  espoused  the  cause  of  the 
Board  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  and  were  supported 
by  others.  The  Board  was  finally  vindicated  and  the 
charges  were  withdrawn,  leaving  it  stronger  than  when 
the  attack  was  made. 

This  issue  having  been  set  aside,  I  asked  the  chair- 
man of  the  finance  committee  to  insert  in  the  appro- 
priation bill  an  item  of  ^3000  for  the  use  of  the  Board 
in  making  an  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  pauperism  and 
crime, —  something  it  had  been  authorized  to  do  by 
the  previous  legislature,  but  for  which  no  appropriation 
had  been  made,  and  nothing  had  been  done.  The 
chairman  of  the  committee,  who  was  a  friend  of  the 
Board,  advised  me  not  to  ask  for  this  grant,  in  view 
of  the  recent  attack  on  the  Board,  and,  though  con- 
senting to  do  this  if  I  insisted,  wished  me  to  under- 
stand that  he  would  not  be  responsible  for  the  con- 
sequences. The  appropriation  was  inserted,  however, 
at  my  request,  in  the  supply  bill,  and  was  approved 
by  the  committee. 

As  soon  as  the  safety  of  the  appropriation  was  well 
assured  I  took  a  train  for  New  York  and  consulted 
with  Dr.  Elisha  Harris,  secretary  of  the  Prison  Asso- 
ciation of  New  York  (who  had  given  much  attention 
to  the  causes  of  degeneracy),  with  reference  to  the 
formulation  of  a  schedule  to  be  used  in  the  examina- 
tions of  inmates  of  the  poorhouses  and  almshouses  of 


146     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

the  state.  Having  had  some  experience  as  a  merchant 
in  former  years,  it  seemed  to  me  desirable  at  this  junc- 
ture—  using  the  mercantile  phrase  —  to  take  an  ac- 
count of  stock,  and  that  the  Board  could  render  a  great 
public  service  by  making  such  an  inquiry.  Dr.  Harris 
very  kindly  prepared  a  schedule  which,  as  subsequently 
modified  by  Dr.  Hoyt,  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of 
Charities,  to  make  it  more  conveniently  applicable  to 
the  examination  of  the  inmates  of  the  poorhouses  and 
almshouses  of  the  state,  was  finally  approved  by  the 
Board  and  used  by  Dr.  Hoyt  in  the  inquiry  authorized 
by  the  legislature. 

Thus  the  Quaker  member  of  the  Board,  no 
more  than  fairly  seated  in  it,  was  the  one  to 
spring  to  its  defence  and  find  cudgels  for  beat- 
ing off  the  attack.  Not  only  that,  but  the  en- 
counter roused  him  to  push  forward  and  snatch 
a  positive  trophy  of  victory  from  the  discom- 
fited assailants  of  the  Board,  in  the  form  of  an 
increased  appropriation  for  its  work.  It  was  a 
striking  revelation  that  he  gave  then  of  the  re- 
inforcement of  energy,  courage,  earnestness,  and 
sound  practical  judgment  which  his  appointment 
had  brought  into  the  important  body  that  su- 
pervises the  public  charities  of  the  state.  With- 
out self-assertion  or  assumption  on  his  part, 
there  was  a  natural  and  necessary  leadership  in 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT      147 

what  he  did,  which  had  recognition  very  soon 
in  his  election  (June,  1874)  to  the  vice-presi- 
dency of  the  Board,  and  to  the  presidency  in 
1877. 

To    return    now    to    Commissioner    Letch- 
worth's  investigation,  in  1875,  ^^  ^^^  "orphan 

asylums,  reformatories,  and  other  in-   „ 
/      .  .  Survey  of 

stitutions  of  the  state  having  the  care   orphanages 

and  custody  of  children,"  it  appears,  ^^'^  reform- 
r.  !•       r         J  1  •  atories 

rrom  a  list  round  among  his  papers, 

that  he  visited  that  year  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
four  institutions  of  that  nature,  great  and  small, 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  that  eight,  only, 
existed  which  he  had  not  been  able  to  visit.  It 
is  certain  that  his  official  inspections  were  never 
perfunctorily  performed,  and  it  fairly  fatigues 
one  to  think  of  the  travel  and  labor  which  this 
investigation  required,  crowded  as  It  was  with 
other  work  Into  a  single  year.  When  preparing 
the  elaborate  report  of  it,  in  November,  1875, 
he  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  :  "  I  am 
working  very  hard  on  my  report,  ...  to  the 
extent  of  my  strength,  and  if  it  is  not  completed 
in  time  it  will  be  through  no  lack  of  effort  on 
my  part.  I  have  set  aside  everything  else,  and 
am  working  on  it  not  only  every  hour,  but 
every   minute  except  what  I  take  for  sleep.   I 


148     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

have  also  got  Randall's  Island  nearly  done.  I 
have  come  out  pretty  strongly  on  this  abomina- 
tion, and  Mr.  Pruyn  and  yourself  may  think  I 
need  toning  down  ;  but  I  am  inclined  to  think 
the  people  will  sustain  us  in  an  outspoken 
position." 

As  set  forth  in  the  report,  his  chief  aim  in 
the  inspection  of  orphan  asylums,  reformatories, 
etc.,  was  "to  obtain  and  present  the  views  of  as 
large  a  number  as  possible  of  those  whose  long 
experience  in  the  care  and  reformation  of  child- 
ren renders  their  opinions  on  the  subject  valu- 
able ;  also,  in  the  notes  taken,  to  incorporate 
largely  the  language  of  those  identified  with 
asylums  and  reformatories,  in  order  to  illustrate 
better  their  workings.  .  .  .  The  attempt  has 
been  made  to  outline  with  some  care  the  system 
of  at  least  one  of  each  of  the  different  classes 
of  institutions,  in  the  hope  that  the  report,  taken 
as  a  whole,  might  give  a  tolerably  correct  idea 
of  the  manner  in  which  this  great  work  of 
benevolence  is  carried  on  throughout  the  state. 
.  .  .  In  almost  every  instance  minute  inquiries 
have  been  made,  the  premises  carefully  inspected, 
and,  with  the  assistance  of  a  competent  steno- 
grapher, full  notes  taken  upon  every  depart- 
ment."   The  Commissioner's  visits,  he  states, 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT       149 

in  every  case  excepting  one,  were  made  unex- 
pectedly to  asylum  officials. 

The  notes  on  institutions  visited  are  pre- 
ceded by  an  interesting  presentation  of  opinions 
and  suggestions,  derived  from  the  observations 
he  had  made,  touching  almost  everything  that 
has  an  important  bearing  on  the  location,  con- 
struction, equipment,  sanitation,  economic  man- 
agement, and  educational  aims  of  these  paternal 
establishments  of  the  state.  The  report  closes 
with  the  remark  that  "  a  general  survey  of  the 
benevolent  work  carried  on  throughout  the  state, 
in  asylums,  reformatories,  aid  societies,  indus- 
trial schools  and  other  institutions  for  the  care 
of  children,  gives  one  a  higher  conception  of  our 
humanity  and  its  unselfish  capabilities." 

A  certain  number  of  copies  of  the  three  re- 
ports made  by  Mr.  Letchworth  of  his  investi- 
gations in  1874  and  1875  ^^^^  subsequently 
bound  together  in  a  volume  entitled  "  Homes 
of  Homeless  Children."  In  this  volume  the 
report  on  orphan  asylums,  reformatories,  and 
other  institutions  for  the  care  of  dependent 
children  in  the  State  of  New  York,  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  general  report  on  children  in 
poorhouses  and  almshouses  in  the  state,  and 
the   supplementary  report   on  the  pauper  chil- 


150     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

dren  of  Randall's  Island.  In  an  introductory 
note  it  was  stated  that  1730  children  had  been 
Summary  of  ^^"^oved  from  the  almshouses  of 
child-saving  New  York  and  King's  counties 
results  alone,  and  that  "  the  degrading  sys- 

tem was  forever  set  aside." 

The  removals,  however,  of  healthy  and  in- 
telligent children  from  association  with  adult 
paupers  was  not  yet  completely  carried  out. 
The  mandatory  law  of  1875  ^^^  required  such 
removal  of  all  above  three  years  of  age.  An 
act  of  1878  went  farther,  requiring  all  children 
over  two  years  of  age  to  be  removed  from  poor- 
houses,  "without  regard  to  their  mental  and 
physical  condition  "  ;  on  which  the  State  Board 
of  Charities,  in  its  report  for  that  year,  re- 
marked :  "  This  law  has  not,  as  yet,  been  gen- 
erally put  in  force,  except  in  the  case  of  the 
healthy  and  intelligent  children.  The  poor- 
houses  contain  considerable  numbers  of  un- 
teachable,  idiotic,  epileptic,  and  [otherwise] 
diseased  children,  for  many  of  whom  no  ade- 
quate public  provision  exists.  In  order  fully  to 
carry  out  the  wise  and  humane  intentions  of  the 
Act  of  1878,  some  additional  provision  by  the 
state  for  these  classes  will  need  to  be  made." 
Three  years  later,  in   its  report  for   1881,  the 


CHILD-SAVING:   PREVENIENT      151 

Board  made  the  following  statement  of  facts : 
"  During  the  past  year  the  Board,  by  its  mem- 
bers and  officers,  made  an  examination  and  in- 
quiry into  the  condition  of  the  children  be- 
tween two  and  sixteen  years  old,  in  the  various 
county  poorhouses  of  the  state.  .  .  .  The  ex- 
aminations show  that  there  were  seventy-one 
such  children  in  the  county  poorhouses,  forty- 
seven  of  whom  were  males  and  twenty-four  fe- 
males. Of  these,  thirty  were  idiots,  mostly  un- 
teachable,  nine  epileptics,  one  paralytic,  three 
crippled,  ten  otherwise  diseased,  and  eighteen 
healthy  and  intelligent."  These,  of  the  last- 
named  class,  were  said  to  be  "  mostly  depraved 
and  vicious  children,  some  of  whom  had  been 
in  orphan  asylums  and  returned  as  incorrigible." 
They  were  found  in  ten  counties.  In  twenty- 
eight  counties  no  children  older  than  two  years 
were  found. 

The  reform  for  which  Mr.  Letchworth  had 
labored  so  strenuously  had  been  carried  then, 
we  may  conclude,  as  nearly  to  completeness  as 
the  public  provision  for  a  better  treatment  of 
defective  children  than  the  poorhouses  could 
give  them  would  permit.  Twelve  years  later 
(1893),  ^"  ^  "History  of  Child-Saving  Work 
in  the  State  of  New  York,"  prepared,  upon  re- 


152     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

quest,  for  the  Twentieth  National  Conference 
of  Charities  and  Correction,  held  at  Chicago 
during  the  Columbian  Exposition,  he  could 
speak  of  it  as  a  completed  reform.  "  The  re- 
form," he  said,  "  has  been  complete  and  effect- 
ual, and  there  are  now  virtually  no  healthy,  in- 
telligent children  over  two  years  of  age  subject 
to  the  soul-destroying  influences  of  the  county 
poorhouses  or  city  almshouses  of  the  state." 

Substantially,  so  far  as  concerned  his  own 
state,  the  child-saving  labors  of  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  in  this  particular  field  were  finished  by 
the  year  1876.  The  finest  tribute  paid  to  the 
great  importance  and  efi^ectiveness  of  the  social 
service  rendered  in  those  labors  came  many 
years  afterwards  from  an  intelligent 

Official  trib-    Ljr.r  J  ?, 

ute  from        head  or  the  nnance  department  or  the 
New  York      City  of  New  York,  where  they  had 
^  ^  been  most  obstinately  and  violently 

opposed.  Comptroller  Edward  M.  Grout,  in  an 
official  report  on  "  Private  Charitable  Institu- 
tions in  the  City  of  New  York,"  made  in  1904, 
referred  to  this  part  of  Mr.  Letchworth's  work 
as  follows  :  — 

In  the  early  seventies  charity  workers,  impressed 
with  the  iniquity  of  the  almshouse  system,  determined 
to  effect  a  change.     A  crusade  against  almshouses  — 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT      153 

for  it  may  properly  be  called  that — found  its  leader 
in  the  Honorable  William  P.  Letchworth,  of  Port- 
age, New  York,  one  of  the  indefatigable  workers  in 
the  State  Board  of  Charities.  It  is  fair  to  call  him  the 
father  of  the  movement  to  take  children  out  of  the 
degrading  conventions  in  poorhouses  and  almshouses. 
In  1874  he  began  a  systematic  visitation  of  all  charit- 
able institutions,  both  public  and  private.  He  visited 
the  orphan  asylums,  reformatories  and  institutions  of 
all  sorts  and  conditions.  His  investigation  was  broad 
and  complete,  for  he  went  throughout  the  state  with 
his  stenographer  and  witnesses,  noting  facts  and  tak- 
ing testimony.  His  energy  and  patience  were  exhaust- 
less.  He  made  elaborate  reports,  plans,  diagrams  and 
charts.  These  he  presented  to  the  State  Board,  and 
then  to  the  legislature.  Gathered  together,  these  dif- 
ferent reports  made  a  volume  of  over  six  hundred 
closely  printed  pages.  The  result  of  it  all  was  such 
an  indictment  of  almshouses  and  of  public  institutions 
for  children  that  the  conclusions  were  irresistible. 

After  extended  quotations  from  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's  reports  the  comptroller  goes  on  to 
say  :  — 

The  result  of  Mr.  Letchworth's  work  was  tremen- 
dous and  overwhelming.  The  legislature  asked, — 
"  What  can  be  done  with  these  children,  and  where 
can  they  be  placed  ?  "  Fresh  from  his  examination  of 
every  institution  in  the  State,  Mr.  Letchworth  replied 


154     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

that  the  private  institutions  were  the  natural  and  logical 
way  out.  ...  As  the  year  went  by  the  opinions  of  Mr. 
Letchworth,  urged  also  by  the  State  Board  and  others, 
prevailed,  and  it  was  determined  to  follow  the  plan 
suggested.  There  appeared  to  be  no  other  satisfactory 
solution  to  the  problem.  The  city  determined,  defin- 
itely, either  to  turn  all  its  dependent  children  over  to 
the  charitable  institutions  or  return  them  to  their  par- 
ents and  guardians,  allowing  them  to  make  such  choice 
among  the  institutions  as  their  religious  inclinations 
might  dictate.  .  .  .  The  last  of  the  children  were  trans- 
ferred from  Randall's  Island  December  31,  1875;  and 
in  the  report  of  the  Commissioners  for  that  year,  pre- 
sented to  the  mayor  early  in  1876,  the  whole  matter 
was  summed  up  in  these  words :  "  The  Nursery  on 
Randall's  Island,  by  act  of  the  legislature,  was  abol- 
ished with  the  close  of  the  year,  and  it  is  prohibited 
by  law  to  receive  children  over  three  years  of  age. 
The  children  have  been  removed  and  were  distrib- 
uted, some  to  the  Protectory  and  others  to  different 
institutions  of  this  city."  Five  and  a  half  printed  lines, 
the  result  of  over  six  hundred  printed  pages  of  effort! 
And  such  effort ! 

This,  then,  is  how  and  why  and  when  the  city  of 
New  York  began  to  do  so  large  a  part  of  its  charitable 
work  through  private  institutions.  It  was  a  matter  of 
investigation,  resulting  in  a  state  law,  and  was  a  de- 
liberate choice.  It  is  true  that  many  children  were 
supported  in  private  institutions,  through  various  acts 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT     155 

of  the  legislature,  prior  to  this  date ;  but  those  cases 
were  exceptional  and  individual.  It  was  this  law  and 
these  resulting  acts  which  constituted  what  can  be 
called  a  "  system,"  and  is  often  referred  to  as  "  the 
New  York  System,"  as  against  systems  of  charitable 
endeavor  bearing  the  names  of  other  states.  New  York 
City  chose  to  care  for  its  children  in  private  institu- 
tions because  it  had  tried  public  institutions  for  three 
quarters  of  a  century,  and  was  worse  off  at  the  end 
than  in  the  beginning.  Because  the  difference  between 
the  two  systems  was  the  difference  between  sight  and 
blindness,  disease  and  health,  crime  and  morality,  life 
and  death.  .  .  . 

The  conditions  of  child  life  in  private  institutions 
after  they  were  taken  from  the  almshouses  and  county 
houses,  through  the  law  of  1875,  were  revolutionized. 
It  would  be  folly  to  say  that  the  highest  ideals  were 
immediately  realized ;  that  would  be  expecting  too 
much  of  human  nature.  Institutions  increased  in  num- 
ber. Their  work  was  partly  specialized  or  classified. 
Reformatories  were  few.  Dependent  children's  insti- 
tutions many.  Everything,  however,  was  greatly  im- 
proved. 

This  emphatic  official  testimony  from  the 
metropolitan  city  affords  conclusive  evidence 
that  the  fight  to  rescue  children  from  pauper- 
keeping  establishments  in  the  State  of  New 
York  was  fought   and  won   by  Commissioner 


156     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Letchworth,  as  the  general  commanding  the  re- 
formatory forces  in  the  state ;  and  that  it  was 
won  practically  within  the  first  three  years  of 
his  service  in  the  field. 

But,  while  this  finished  his  exertions  on  that 
particular  child-saving  line  in  New  York,  it  car- 
Missionary  "^^  ^^"^  °"  ^^^  same  line  into  other 
work  in  fields  of  Struggle,  to  the  same  end. 
other  states  p^^  ^^^  called  to  become  a  mission- 
ary in  other  states  of  the  appeal  against  child- 
pauperism,  and  performed  heavy  labors  in  that 
mission  for  a  number  of  years.  In  March,  1875, 
he  addressed  an  argument  on  the  subject  to  a 
convention  of  superintendents  of  the  poor  in 
Michigan.  In  September  of  the  same  year,  at 
the  Second  National  Conference  of  Charities 
and  Corrections,  held  at  Detroit,  he  read  a  paper 
received  from  the  noted  English  philanthropist, 
Miss  Mary  Carpenter,  entitled  :  "  What  shall 
be  done  for  the  Neglected  and  Criminal  Chil- 
dren of  the  United  States?"  Miss  Carpenter 
had  recently  visited  America,  and  she  keenly 
criticized  conditions  that  she  observed  in  some 
of  the  poorhouses  and  other  institutions  having 
the  custody  of  children.  Mr.  Letchworth  led 
the  discussion  of  her  paper,  and  made  use  of 
the  opportunity  to  relate  what  New  York  had 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT       157 

been  doing  towards  a  reformation  of  the  condi- 
tions in  question.  He  also  introduced  resolu- 
tions recommending  that  the  state  boards  of 
charities  in  various  states  use  their  influence  to 
bring  about  legislation  requiring  the  removal 
of  children  from  poorhouses,  reformatories,  and 
all  association  with  adult  paupers  and  criminals, 
and  that  they  be  placed  in  families  and  appro- 
priate institutions  ;  recommending  further  that 
a  systematic  visitation  of  such  children  when 
placed  in  families  be  provided  for,  and  that  pe- 
riodical reports  of  their  condition,  physically, 
morally  and  intellectually,  be  made  to  some 
supervising  official.  The  resolutions,  after  dis- 
cussion, were  adopted  unanimously. 

In  June,  1876,  finding  himself  unable  to  at- 
tend the  meeting  of  the  International  Prison 
Association,  he  wrote  to  the  president  of  the 
association.  Dr.  E.  C.  Wines,  expressing  his  re- 
gret, and  saying :  — 

The  branch  of  prison  reform  in  which  I  feel  the 
deepest  interest  is  that  of  the  prevention  system.  My 
own  study  of  the  subject  has  fastened  the  conviction 
in  my  mind  that  we  must  "  dry  up  the  fountain,"  and 
that  the  labor  of  philanthropy  must  be  zealously  di- 
rected to  this  purpose.  .  .  .  While  the  custom  of  rear- 
ing children   under  the  evil  influences  of  poorhouse 


158     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

life  has  received  the  condemnation  of  the  legislature 
of  this  state,  it  is  still  prevalent  in  some  others,  and 
under  more  aggravated  conditions  than  existed  here. 
.  .  .  Should  you  deem  it  proper  so  to  do,  I  wish  you 
would  ask  the  consideration  of  the  Congress  to  the 
following  resolution  :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  this  Congress  recommends  that 
the  various  organizations  having  for  their  object  the 
reformation  of  prisoners  use  their  eflForts  to  bring  about, 
wherever  practicable,  such  legislation  as  shall  cause 
dependent  children  to  be  removed  from  county  poor- 
houses,  city  almshouses,  common  jails,  and  from  all 
association  with  adult  paupers  and  with  criminals,  and 
placed  in  families,  asylums,  or  other  appropriate  insti- 
tutions." 

An  earnest  "Appeal  on  behalf  of  the  pauper 
children  in  the  poorhouses  of  Michigan"  was 
addressed  by  Mr.  Letchworth,  in  March,  1876, 
to  the  secretary  of  the  Michigan  Board  of  State 
Charities,  for  reading  at  the  annual  convention 
of  superintendents  of  the  poor,  before  which  he 
had  been  invited  to  speak. 

In  1877  he  was  called  to  discuss  the  subject 
of  "  Dependent  Children"  before  a  convention 
of  the  Directors  of  the  Poor  and  Board  of  Pub- 
lic Charities  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  held 
at  Lock  Haven.    He  had  learned  that  condi- 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT       159 

tlons  in  the  Pennsylvania  poorhouses  were  very 
much  as  they  had  been  in  New  York  before  the 
rescue  of  children  from  them,  and  he  spoke  on 
the  subject  very  plainly,  relating  the  experience 
and  action  in  his  own  state,  showing  how  easily 
the  important  change  could  be  made.  He  be- 
sought his  hearers,  collectively  and  individually, 
to  exert  every  possible  influence  on  public  opin- 
ion in  favor  of  a  removal  of  the  young  from 
poorhouse  stigmas  and  contaminations.  The  re- 
sult of  his  appeal  was  the  adoption  of  a  reso- 
lution by  the  convention  recommending  that 
dependent  children  "be  provided  for  in  orphan 
homes  or  asylums,  now  in  operation,  or  in  others 
which  may  be  established,  to  be  supported  by 
private  contributions,  and  by  aid,  encourage- 
ment, and  cooperation  from  the  state  and  from 
the  counties,  boroughs,  and  cities  in  which  they 
are  located,  and  to  be  subject  to  the  supervision 
of  the  Department  of  Public  Instruction  and 
the  Board  of  Public  Charities." 

Two  years  later,  in  September,  1879,  he  was 
asked  to  come  again  to  the  help  of  the  support- 
ers of  this  reform  in  Pennsylvania.  The  invi- 
tation came  from  the  Organized  Charity  Society 
of  Philadelphia,  and,  being  unable  to  attend 
their  meeting  in  person,  he  wrote  a  letter,  which 


i6o     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

was  published  in  pamphlet  form.  The  argument 
and  appeal  in  this  for  separating  dependent 
children  entirely  from  pauper  and  criminal  asso- 
ciations was  presented  with  great  earnestness 
and  force.  "I  feel,"  he  said,  in  closing  his  let- 
ter, "that  I  can  speak  advisedly  of  the  alms- 
house system  as  it  affects  children,  for  I  have 
taken  pains  to  visit,  aside  from  great  numbers 
in  my  own  state,  some  of  those  in  Massachu- 
setts, Kansas,  Nebraska,  Minnesota,  Rhode 
Island,  Connecticut,  Maine,  New  Hampshire, 
Vermont,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Missouri,  and  I 
find  that  an  almshouse,  poorhouse,  or  infirmary, 
as  they  are  indifferently  called,  whether  in  the 
prairies  of  the  West,  on  the  hills  of  New  Eng- 
land, or  in  the  valleys  of  New  York,  is  filled 
with  baneful  influences  that  depress  and  debase 
childhood."  Here  we  have  an  intimation  of 
the  range  of  country  over  which  he  had  now 
pursued  his  studies  of  the  subject  and  the 
propagandist  work  he  had  undertaken.  By  cor- 
respondence, by  addresses,  by  personal  visits  to 
institutions,  he  had  contributed  more  or  less  to 
the  arousing  of  public  attention  in  all  parts  of 
the  country  to  one  of  the  most  serious  evils  of 
the  day. 

In   the  next  year,  being  invited  to  a  state 


I 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT       i6i 

convention  of  county  poor  officers  in  Ohio,  and 
unable  to  attend,  he  wrote  an  extended  "Ap- 
peal" to  the  convention  on  behalf  of  the  pau- 
per children  of  that  state. 

Even  from  Massachusetts,  and  as  late  as 
1897,  ^  c^l^  came  to  him  for  the  help  of  his 
influence  in  securing  the  passage  of  an  act  to 
accomplish  the  separation  of  dependent  child- 
ren, adult  paupers,  lunatics,  and  criminals  in 
the  charitable  and  correctional  institutions  of 
that  state,  and  he  responded  to  it  in  a  letter  to 
the  Honorable  Samuel  J.  Barrows,  which  was 
made  public,  with  commendatory  comments  by 
the  Boston  Press. 

From  July,  1880,  until  the  following  Janu- 
ary, Mr.   Letchworth  was  in   Europe,  not  for 

rest  or  for  pleasure,  but  on  a  mis-  ,,.    .       , 
*;  '  Mission  of 

sion  of  inquiry  and  observation,  the  observation 
most  strenuous  that  his  enlistment  ^^^^^^ 
in  social  service  had  yet  moved  him  to  under- 
take. His  special  purpose  was  to  see  how 
other  countries  dealt  with  delinquent  children 
and  how  they  treated  their  insane,  and  thus  to 
learn  what  they  might  have  to  teach  with  help- 
fulness to  the  solving  of  the  two  problems  in 
public  benevolence  which  now  claimed  the  most 
of  his  thought. 


i62     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Two  years  before  this  undertaking  of  studies 
abroad,  he  had  written  to  a  brother,  who  asked 
his  advice  on  some  matter  concerning  a  hospi- 
tal: "This  subject  of  charity  is  a  very  broad 
one,  —  too  broad,  I  imagine,  for  any  one  mind 
to  cover  it  completely.  Since  taking  up  its 
study  I  have  confined  myself,  firstly,  to  depend- 
ent and  delinquent  children,  and  secondly,  to 
the  care  of  the  chronic  insane.  I  cannot  boast 
of  having  gone  much  further."  Consequently 
he  did  not  give  the  advice  asked  for.  It  is  evi- 
dent that  he  had  made  this  choice,  of  subjects 
and  objects  on  which  he  would  concentrate  his 
study  and  his  work,  soon  after  he  entered  the 
field  of  philanthropic  public  service;  and  he 
was  strict  in  adhering  to  that  concentration.  As 
we  have  seen,  he  had  trained  himself  from  boy- 
hood to  define  his  undertakings  and  hold  him- 
self to  them  with  resolution.  This  was  the 
secret  of  his  success. 

Having  substantially  accomplished  what  he 
could  for  the  dependent  children  of  his  state, 
the  energies  of  his  mind  were  directed  now  to 
the  remaining  two  of  his  three  chosen  aims. 
There  was  far  more  of  problem  in  these  than 
in  the  subjects  of  his  previous  work,  and  he 
sought  light  on  them  from  all  that  experience. 


CHILD-SAVING:  PREVENIENT       163 

practice,  or  theory,  in  Europe  as  well  as  in 
America,  could  afford.  Hence  his  mission  of 
inquiry  abroad.  What  he  learned  in  his  tour 
and  what  use  he  made  of  the  knowledge  he  ac- 
quired will  be  the  subject  of  future  chapters. 


CHAPTER  V 

STUDIES    OF    PUBLIC    PHILANTHROPY    IN    EUROPE 

Landing  at  Queenstown  on  the  8th  of  July, 
1880,  Mr.  Letchworth  spent  two  weeks  in 
Ireland,  visiting  lunatic  asylums,  poorhouses, 
juvenile  reformatories  and  orphanages,  at  Cork, 
Belfast,  Letterkenny,  and  Dublin.  He  received 
a  favorable  impression  as  to  the  humanity  and 
intelligence  of  the  treatment  of  the  insane  at 
each  of  the  four  institutions  for  that  purpose 
which  he  went  through,  and  their  construction, 
equipment,  and  methods  are  carefully  described 
in  the  book  which  he  published  subsequently, 
on  "The  Insane  in  Foreign  Countries."  The 
Irish  insane  Richmond  District  Lunatic  Asylum, 
asylums  ^^  Dublin,  commanded  his  attention 
especially,  and  he  characterized  it,  after  having 
extended  his  survey  to  the  whole  United  King- 
dom, as  ranking,  in  its  management,  "among 
the  foremost  institutions  of  its  kind  in  either 
Ireland  or  Great  Britain."  Its  superintendent, 
Dr.  Joseph  Lalor,  was  called  "the  father  of 
the  school  system  as  applied  to  asylums."   Dr. 


2 
o 

« 


STUDIES    IN   EUROPE  165 

Lalor's  treatment  of  mental  disorder  was  founded 
on  the  "efficacy  of  employment  and  train- 
ing." "The  main  objects  kept  in  view  here," 
wrote  Mr.  Letchworth,  "  are  to  provide  varied 
occupations  for  as  many  as  are  able  to  work;  to 
apply  a  system  of  education  that  will  divert 
and  strengthen  the  mind;  and  to  promote  by 
every  conceivable  means  the  happiness  and 
welfare  of  the  inmates." 

While  in  Dublin  he  visited  a  number  of  re- 
formatory institutions,  both  Catholic  and  Pro- 
testant, and  found  much  in  them  to  , .  , 

'  Insh  re- 

interest  him.   St.   Kevin's   Reforma-  fonnatory 

tory,  two  miles  from  the  city,  con-  institutions 
ducted  by  the  Oblate  Fathers  of  Mary  Imma- 
culate, who  gave  training  to  two  hundred  and 
eighty  boys,  he  found  occupying,  as  its  original 
building,  one  of  the  barracks  erected  by  the 
military  in  1798.  Most  of  the  additional  build- 
ings, including  a  chapel,  had  been  constructed 
by  the  boys,  who  were  instructed  in  many  trades, 
and  cultivated  a  farm,  with  a  large  garden,  the 
latter,  especially,  showing  excellent  work.  On 
entering  the  institution  every  boy  was  given  a 
certain  standing  of  honor,  which  he  lost  if  he 
did  anything  wrong,  and  the  restoration  of  which 
he  must  earn. 


1 66     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

The  Rehoboth  Place  Reformatory  (Protest- 
ant), a  small  institution,  attempted  no  confine- 
ment of  its  thirty-seven  boys.  They  were  sur- 
rounded by  no  walls.  If  they  chose  to  run  away 
they  could  do  so;  but  then  they  were  almost 
surely  caught  and  sent  to  the  City  Male  Prison, 
which  was  a  much  less  attractive  place.  No 
whipping  was  done  in  the  Reformatory;  no  boy 
had  been  struck  a  blow  within  the  past  three 
years.  Sometimes,  when  punishment  became 
necessary,  they  were  confined  in  a  cell,  with  a 
half  allowance  of  bread  and  water.  Another  Pro- 
testant Reformatory  and  Institute,  for  girls 
(Cork  Street),  did  resort  to  corporal  punish- 
ment at  times,  though  lightly,  and  to  cellular 
confinement;  but  "the  most  effectual  effort  is 
to  keep  the  girls  employed  "  was  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's  note.  They  were  all  knitting  when  he 
visited  the  place. 

After   leaving   the    island    Mr.    Letchworth 

wrote  home  :  "  I   had  a  very  interesting  experi- 

o  i.^-  u  ence  in  Ireland  and  learned  much; 
Scottish  ' 

treatment  some  things  that  will  be  of  advantage 
oftheinsane  ^^  q^j.  sj-^te  pecuniarily,  if  adopted, 
and  others  that  will  relieve  suffering  humanity." 
Passing  from  Ireland  into  Scotland,  he  became 
at  once  interested  in  some  peculiar  features  of 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  167 

the  Scottish  system  of  dealing  with  insanity, — 
especially  the  "boarding-out"  of  pauper  patients 
in  the  families  of  small  farmers,  which  is  claimed 
to  be  for  their  good  as  well  as  economical  in 
cost.  About  one  fifth  of  the  Scottish  insane  were 
found  to  be  provided  for  in  this  way.  For  the 
large  remainder  a  good  provision  of  asylums 
was  made,  under  district  boards  and  a  General 
Board  of  Commissioners  of  Lunacy  which  super- 
vised the  whole.  Mr.  Letchworth  sought  out  a 
considerable  number  of  the  country  cottages  in 
which  these  mentally  disordered  boarders  were 
being  entertained,  and  what  he  saw  of  their  sit- 
uation is  described  in  his  work  on  "  The  Insane 
in  Foreign  Countries  "  ;  but  he  intimates  neither 
approval  nor  disapproval  of  the  system  in  this 
account  of  it.  Subsequently  he  studied  the  work- 
ings of  the  samepractice  in  Norway  and  Belgium, 
and  it  receives  a  cautious  discussion  in  the  ad- 
mirable summary  of  conclusions  which  appears 
in  the  final  chapter  of  his  book. 

At  Glasgow,  Edinburgh,  Dundee,  and  else- 
where in  Scotland,  he  visited  a  considerable 
number  of  asylums  for  the  insane;  and  also  a 
number  of  institutions  in  which  children  are  the 
subjects  of  public  care.  Three  only  of  the  Scot- 
tish asylums,  namely,  Woodilee,  Mid-Lothian 


i68     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

and  Peebles  District,  and  Morningside,  are  re- 
ported on  in  his  published  work.  The  Woodilee 
Asylum,  at  Lenzie,  near  Glasgow,  was  ex- 
amined by  him  "with  peculiar  interest,  for  the 
reason  that  it  has  the  reputation,  beyond  any 
other  of  its  kind  in  Great  Britain,  of  making 
practical  application  of  the  most  advanced  the- 
ories respecting  non-restraint  and  personal  free- 
dom." "  It  was  stated,"  he  writes,  "that  there 
were  no  strait-jackets  nor  restraining  dresses  — 
nothing  involving  mechanical  restraint  —  within 
the  institution.  If  violent,  a  patient  is  walked 
about  until  he  calms  down  ;  and  if  very  violent 
he  is  placed  in  charge  of  two  or  more  special 
attendants.  .  .  .  Without  attempting  to  decide 
to  what  extent  the  radical  principles  put  in  prac- 
tice here  are  worthy  of  general  adoption,  it  was 
evident  that  there  was  a  remarkable  degree  of 
contentment  and  cheerful  activity."  The  Morn- 
ingside or  Royal  Edinburgh  Asylum  interested 
him  greatly,  and  became  the  subject  of  a  quite 
extended  description.  "  In  few  other  asylums 
visited,"  he  wrote,  "did  the  inmates  approach 
so  near  the  appearance  of  sane  people  in  home 
life.  .  .  .  Walled  enclosures  or  airing-courts  have 
been  abolished.  .  .  .  Looking  over  the  spacious 
and  highly  improved  grounds,  the  eye  failed  to 


STUDIES  IN  EUROPE  169 

detect  any  sign  of  irksome  restriction  in  the  form 
of  interior  walls  or  other  barriers.  .  .  .  One  of 
the  first  things  Dr.  Clouston  did  after  his  ap- 
pointment in  1873  was  to  remove  the  iron  grat- 
ings from  the  windows.  .  .  .  The  training  of  the 
attendants  is  manifestly  of  a  high  order,  devel- 
oping patience  and  even  tenderness." 

Among  the  Scottish  reformatory  institutions 
that  were  visited  by   Mr.   Letchworth,  one  at 

Glasgow — the  Duke  Street  Reform-   „ 

^  Scottish 

atory    for    boys  —  was     delightfully  reforma- 

startling  in  its  contrast  to  the  prison-  to^^s  for 
like  "houses  of  refuge"  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  A  fine  open  yard  in  front  and  an 
equally  open  playground  at  the  back  prepared  the 
visitor  to  be  told:  "We  have  got  along  thus  far 
without  walls.  There  is  something  stronger  than 
walls."  But  it  was  added  :  "  We  want  to  get 
into  the  country  ;  for  here  we  have  not  only  to 
keep  the  boys  in,  but  to  keep  pernicious  in- 
fluences out."  Lately  a  field  in  the  country  had 
been  engaged  for  football,  and  the  boys  were 
to  be  taken  to  it  on  Saturdays.  The  number 
of  these  boys  was  one  hundred  and  sixty-five, 
and  only  seventeen  of  them  had  been  sent  to 
the  reformatory  for  slight  offences.  They  were 
released  as  soon  as  they   were  thought  to  be 


170     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

ready  for  self-control ;  places  of  employment 
were  always  sought  for  them,  and,  said  the 
governor  of  the  institution,  "As  long  as  they 
need  our  guidance,  it  is  our  duty  and  our  pleas- 
ure to  give  it  to  them." 

From  Scotland  Mr.  Letchworth  crossed  to 
Sweden  and  Norway,  finding  much  to  interest 
Scandina-  ^^"^  ^"  some  of  their  reformative  in- 
vian  institu-  stitutions,  but  less  that  was  instruct- 
ions j^g  Qj.  suggestive  in  the  care  of  the 
insane.  At  Gothenburg  he  inspected  an  institu- 
tion for  the  reformation  of  young  men  who  had 
fallen  into  evil  courses,  and  who  were  committed 
to  it  for  definite  periods.  They  numbered  at  the 
time  of  his  visit  two  hundred  and  sixty-one,  and 
six  were  then  being  held  in  solitary  confinement. 
The  whole  treatment  appears  to  have  been  con- 
siderably prison-like,  and  the  prisoners  were 
known  by  number  instead  of  by  name.  They 
were  employed,  however,  at  various  common 
trades. 

Another  institution  in  the  same  place  is  de- 
scribed briefly  in  his  notebook  as  follows:  "At 
Gothenburg  is  a  large  and  long  two-story  build- 
ing, with  wings,  well  furnished,  and  with  a  de- 
lightful garden  in  the  rear,  provided  for  respect- 
able aged  persons  and  supported   by  tax  upon 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  171 

the  city.  The  worthless   and   disreputable  are 
provided  for  elsewhere." 

At  Christiania  our  inquirer  found  a  reform- 
atory for  boys  which  commended  itself  in  many 
features  to  his  judgment  of  what  such  an  insti- 
tution should  be.  It  was  seated  on  a  large  tract 
of  land,  stocked  with  sixty-five  cows,  eighteen 
pairs  of  oxen,  ten  horses,  the  use  and  care 
of  which  gave  healthy  employment  to  a  quite 
large  part  of  its  hundred  and  thirteen  boys. 
Besides  this  farm  work  there  was  brickmaking, 
blacksmithing,  wagon-making,  and  tailoring  to 
keep  them  busy  and  to  prepare  them  for  earn- 
ing their  living.  For  all  overwork  they  were 
allowed  wages,  and  these  earnings  were  depos- 
ited in  a  savings  bank  to  their  credit.  They 
were  hemmed  in  by  no  walls,  and  corporal 
punishment  was  rarely  inflicted  upon  them. 

From  Stockholm  the  traveller  wrote  to 
friends  at  home  :  "  My  stay  was  a  profitable 
and  pleasant  experience."  In  this  city  he  vis- 
ited a  female  prison,  whose  three  hundred  and 
fifty  convicts  included  one  hundred  and  fifty 
under  sentence  for  infanticide;  a  school  of  do- 
mestic arts,  which  gave  a  three  years'  course  of 
instruction  in  all  branches  of  housework  to  girls 
of  sixteen,  and  then  sent  them  to  places  in  fam- 


172     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Hies;  an  immense  poorhouse,  having  twelve 
hundred  tenants,  including  ninety  insane,  and 
employing  them  generally  at  all  kinds  of  work; 
a  home  for  idiots,  a  hospital,  an  asylum  for 
the  insane  (the  Conradsberg)  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  city  ;  but  this  latter,  which  exhibited  cer- 
tain "  hard  and  forbidding  aspects,"  contributed 
little  to  his  discussion  of"  The  Insane  in  Foreign 
Countries." 

Going  next  to  Copenhagen,  he  visited  a  boys* 
reformatory  which  pleased  him  much  in  many 
features.  A  private  institution,  receiving  some 
public  aid,  it  gave  its  care  to  only  sixty-six,  and 
employed  them  wholly  in  farm  work.  In  winter 
they  got  their  schooling,  and  were  not  exercised 
in  any  mechanic  trades.  In  the  farming  season 
their  studies  were  dropped,  except  on  stormy 
days.  Some  were  hired  to  neighboring  farmers, 
and  the  institution  took  their  wages.  The  place 
had  neither  window  gratings  nor  walls.  The  boys 
seemed  to  feel  towards  it,  quite  generally,  as 
towards  a  home,  and  many,  after  leaving,  came 
back  to  visit  it.  No  less  than  twenty-eight  had 
done  so  on  the  previous  Christmas. 

Also,  while  at  Copenhagen,  he  went  through 
the  St.  Hans  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  which 
is  situated  not  far  from  the  city,  and  it  is  favor- 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  173 

ably  described  in  his  book  on  the  European 
treatment  of  the  insane.  The  St.  Hans  Hos- 
pital had  one  special  advantage,  in  the  oppor- 
tunity for  beach-bathing,  which  the  patients 
enjoy,  and  which  seemed  to  be  of  excellent  ef- 
fect. "  There  have  been  abundant  occasions," 
said  the  superintendent.  Dr.  Steenberg,  "  when 
I  could  date  the  beginning  of  convalescence,  or 
at  least  of  essential  improvement  both  in  mind 
and  body,  from  the  day  when  the  patient  began 
strand-bathing." 

From  Denmark  Mr.  Letchworth  entered  Ger- 
many, and  paused  first  at   Hamburg,  to  give 

close  attention  to  the  celebrated  re-  ,    ^ 

_  .        .  .  ■"!  Germany 

formative  industrial  school  named  —  Rauhe 
the  Rauhe  Haus,  founded  by  Im-^^^"^ 
manuel  Wichern  in  1833.  Its  first  house  had 
been  formerly  an  inn,  and  Immanuel,  with  his 
mother,  began  there  his  work.  Then  a  garden 
cottage  was  occupied ;  and  so  the  extension  ap- 
pears to  have  gone  on,  not  by  enlargement  of 
buildings,  but  by  a  multiplication  of  them, 
adding  cottage  to  cottage,  until  about  two  hun- 
dred boys  and  forty  "  brothers,"  who  are  their 
guardians  and  teachers,  were  housed  at  the  time 
of  Mr.  Letchworth's  visit.  Thus  the  "  cottage 
system,"  which  is  being  accepted  as  the  best 


174     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCH  WORTH 

habitation  arrangement  for  nearly  all  institu- 
tional collections  of  people,  grew  up  in  a  nat- 
ural way,  and  if  the  Rauhe  Haus  did  not  afford 
the  first  object-teaching  of  this  fact,  the  illustra- 
tive lesson  it  gave  was  early  and  impressive.  It 
was  a  lesson  which  Mr.  Letchworth,  if  he  had 
not  conclusively  learned  it  already,  appears  to 
have  been  fully  prepared  to  accept,  with  convic- 
tion, from  that  time. 

Each  cottage  of  the  institution  was  the  home 
of  a  "  family,"  consisting,  usually,  of  twelve 
boys  and  two  or  three  "brothers,"  the  former 
occupying  the  lower  floor,  the  latter  the  upper 
floor,  each  having  its  sitting-room.  Kitchen  and 
flower-gardens  were  attached  to  each  cottage. 
The  cooking  for  all  was  done  at  one  place. 
Work  in  several  trades  was  being  carried  on, 
as  well  as  the  care  of  cows,  horses,  and  poultry. 
The  institution  was  intended,  in  the  main,  to 
provide  for  the  reclamation  of  neglected  child- 
ren, but  it  had  taken  in  about  twenty  of  the 
criminal  class,  and  did  not  set  them  apart.  It 
did  make  a  class,  however,  of  children  whose 
parents  could  pay  for  better  furnishings  and 
food  than  the  others  received.  In  all  cases  par- 
ents paid  if  they  could,  and  what  they  could ; 
otherwise  the  institution  was  supported  by  vol- 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  175 

untary  contributions.     From  its    beginning   it 
had  dealt  with  about  fifteen  hundred  boys. 

In  a  neighboring  village  a  school  for  girls  was 
conducted  on  the  same  system,  but  on  a  small 
scale,  its  inmates  numbering  only  twenty-five. 
This  was  under  the  care  of  a  married  "brother" 
and  his  wife. 

Another  institution  at  Hamburg  to  which 
Mr.  Letchworth  gave  careful  attention  was  the 
Friedrichsberg  Asylum  for  the  Insane.  Two 
features  of  the  Friedrichsberg  Asylum  im- 
pressed him  unfavorably.  One  was  the  attempted 
"  classification  of  the  patients  into  social  grades," 
in  combination  with  a  more  rational  classifica- 
tion of  them  according  to  their  mental  and 
physical  state.  "  The  aim,"  as  he  explained, 
"  is  not  only  to  observe  with  care  the  social 
distinctions  and  requirements,  but  also  to  pro- 
vide each  of  the  several  classes  and  their  num- 
erous divisions  with  separate  accommodations 
and  conveniences  —  down  even  to  a  separate 
tea-kitchen.  But  so  complex  is  this  method  of 
classification  that  it  is  admittedly  a  source  of 
much  embarrassment  to  the  administration." 
The  other  questionable  characteristic  of  the  in- 
stitution is  suggested  in  the  remark  that  "the 
buildings  are  in  the  midst  of  beautiful  grounds; 


176     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCH  WORTH 

but  the  spectacle  of  patients  restricted  to  small 
yards  produces  an  unfavorable  impression  on 
the  mind  of  the  visitor.  As  one  walks  about 
the  grounds  and  sees  the  patients  through  iron 
screenwork  or  wooden  palings,  the  idea  of  a 
park  menagerie  is  disagreeably  suggested.  It 
was  asserted  by  the  management  that  there  was 
no  '  forcing,'  and  that  no  mechanical  restraint 
whatever  was  resorted  to." 

In  Germany  Mr.  Letch  worth  gave  careful  in- 
spection to  numerous   institutions  in   the  sev- 
eral  departments   of  public   philan- 
German  ^  ^  t^ 

treatment       thropy    which    claimed    his    special 

of  the  study,  but  only  one  of  the  German 

insane  •      ^-^    ^-  r        ^      •  •  , 

mstitutions  tor  the  msane  impressed 

him  sufficiently  to  be  the  subject  of  much  descrip- 
tion or  comment  in  his  subsequent  book.  That 
one,  however,  the  provincial  Insane  Asylum  of 
Alt-Scherbitz,  in  the  Prussian  Province  of  Sax- 
ony, near  Leipzig,  appears  to  have  come  nearer 
to  the  realizing  of  his  final  ideals  of  what  the 
treatment  of  demented  humanity  should  be  than 
any  other  that  he  ever  saw,  abroad  or  at  home. 
He  found  the  provision  of  care  for  the  insane  to 
be  regulated  by  no  general  laws  in  the  German 
Empire,  but  varying  in  the  different  states.  He 
found,  too,  that  only  about  one  third  of  the  in- 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  177 

sane  in  Germany  were  given  asylum  treatment, 
the  remainder  being  considered  suitable  for 
family  care  ;  and  that  the  asylums  were  small 
compared  with  those  of  England,  the  United 
States,  and  some  other  countries.  Even  that  of 
Alt-Scherbitz,  which  impressed  him  so  much, 
had  no  impressive  magnitude,  providing  only 
for  six  hundred  patients;  but  it  was  one  of  two 
institutions  to  which  he  gave  distinct  chapters 
in  his  account  of  the  care  of  the  insane  in 
foreign  countries;  the  other  being  the  Belgian 
"Colony  of  Gheel." 

The  Alt-Scherbitz  Asylum,  when  visited  by 
Mr.  Letchworth  in  1880,  had  been  in  exist- 
ence but  four  years.  At  its  opening,  Alt-Scher- 
in  1876,  when  it  was  founded  by  bitz  Asylum 
Professor  John  Maurice  Koeppe,  it  received 
forty  patients  in  the  old  farmhouse  of  the  Alt- 
Scherbitz  manor,  and  further  buildings  for  it 
were  then  begun.  These  buildings  included  one 
for  administrative  purposes,  two  reception  sta- 
tions, two  observation  stations,  two  detention 
houses,  and  a  hospital  for  the  bodily  sick,  all 
"unpretentious  brick  structures,  with  outer 
porches,"  entirely  separated  from  one  another, 
and  surrounded  by  seven  hundred  acres  of  the 
asylum  estate.     Lying  within  that  estate  is  the 


178     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

small  hamlet  of  Alt-Scherbitz,  and  within  the 
hamlet  were  ten  cottages  or  villas  belonging  to 
the  asylum  and  occupied  by  some  of  its  quiet 
patients. 

The  reception  stations  (one  for  men  and  one 
for  women),  as  described  by  Mr.  Letchworth, 
"are  clinical  passagev/ays  for  all  newly  received 
patients,  who  are  detained  here  as  long  as  they 
need  continual  care  and  treatment."  The  obser- 
vation stations,  one  for  each  sex,  "  are  for  patients 
who,  though  not  of  the  acute  class,  need  special 
observation  because  they  are  not  sufficiently 
capable  of  self-control  nor  reliable  enough  for 
reception  in  the  colonial  stations."  The  two  de- 
tention houses  "  are  for  such  male  and  female 
patients  as  it  is  necessary  to  restrict  because  of 
their  being  restless  or  dangerous,  or  from  the 
suspicion  of  their  having  a  desire  to  escape." 
The  villas  or  cottages  are  of  three  classes,  differ- 
ently furnished  according  to  the  rate  of  pay- 
ment made  for  the  patients  who  occupy  them. 
Of  these  Mr.  Letchworth  wrote :  "  It  was  a 
pleasant  summer  day  when  I  was  there,  and  the 
patients  were  passing  in  and  out  without  inter- 
ference, all,  however,  being  under  watchful  su- 
pervision." Of  "the  institution  cottages  in  the 
adjacent  hamlet  of  Alt-Scherbitz,"  which  appear 


STUDIES  IN  EUROPE  179 

to  have  had  single  occupants,  he  says:  "  At  one 
of  these  the  patient  had  gone  out  and  locked 
his  door,  and  the  physician  would  not  enter  the 
dwelling  without  his  permission." 

Relative  to  the  freedom  given  to  patients  gen- 
erally in  the  institution,  he  quoted  the  superin- 
tendent, Dr/Paetz,  as  saying:  "Every  sort  of 
restraint  by  force  is  strictly  interdicted,  as  being 
against  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  asy- 
lum. The  patients  enjoy  the  largest  imaginable 
freedom,  the  asylum  representing  the  non-re- 
straint system  in  the  widest  sense.  Restraint  is 
easy  to  dispense  with  if  one  earnestly  wishes  to 
dispense  with  it."  Mr.  Letchworth  adds  to  this 
the  remark  that  "the  number  of  nurses  or  at- 
tendants averages  about  one  to  ten  patients. 
They  live  with  the  patients  and  lodge  in  the 
same  dormitories."  Agricultural  work  and  va- 
rious trades  for  the  men,  with  household  occu- 
pations for  the  women,  keep  most  of  them  well 
employed.  In  closing  his  account  of  the  place, 
which  pleased  him  greatly,  he  says  :  "  The  whole 
system  of  care  and  treatment  seems  adapted  to 
insure  highly  satisfactory  results ;  and  yet  a 
stranger  passing  along  the  highway  and  catch- 
ing glimpses  of  the  asylum  buildings  through 
the  trees  and  shrubbery  would  hardly  suspect. 


i8o     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

from  their  unpretentious  character  and  their 
arrangement  upon  the  estate,  that  the  place  was 
a  pubHc  hospital  and  asylum  for  insane  people." 
An  older  institution  for  the  insane,  at  Halle, 
Prussia,  engaged  Mr.  Letchworth's  attention 
but  slightly.  He  was  busy,  however,  for  some 
days  at  Berlin,  Duisburg,  Kaiserwirth,  Diis- 
seldorf,  and  Boppard,  visiting  other  institu- 
tions, mostly  of  the  reformative  class.    Several 

,  of  these  latter  he  found  to  be  copies, 

ReproQuc-  _  ^ 

tions  of  more  or  less  faithful,  of  the  Rauhe 
Rauhe  Kaus  Haus,  at  Hamburg.  The  Evangel- 
ical Foundation  of  St.  John,  at  Berlin,  had 
been  founded,  in  fact,  by  Dr.  Wichern,  of  the 
Rauhe  Haus,  in  1858,  and  patterned  very 
closely  after  the  Hamburg  original.  The  sub- 
jects of  its  care  were  the  wayward  youth,  of 
both  sexes,  who  had  not  become  amenable  to 
law,  but  were  dangerously  on  the  way  to  crime 
and  vice.  These,  its  pupils,  were  under  the 
oversight  of  "brothers,"  w^ho  were  trained  for 
the  function,  in  a  Briiderhaus  (brethren's  house, 
or  missionary  house)  within  the  premises,  pur- 
suing a  course  which  occupied  from  three  to 
five  years.  Pupils  and  "brothers"  lived  to- 
gether, as  at  the  Rauhe  Haus,  in  families,  oc- 
cupying family  houses,  and    the   general   eco- 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  i8i 

nomy,  discipline,  and  employment  was  about 
the  same. 

Diisselthal  Reformatory,  near  Diisseldorf- 
on-the-Rhine,  an  older  and  much  larger  insti- 
tution, exhibited  the  "family"  organization  of 
its  pupils,  but  differently  carried  out.  Some  but 
not  all  of  the  families  were  housed  separately, 
and  the  "brothers"  were  wanting.  The  head 
of  the  institution  and  his  wife  were  known  as 
the  "house-father"  and  the  "house-mother," 
and  between  them  and  the  pupils  there  appears 
to  have  been  no  intermediate  authority.  Diis- 
selthal, having  one  hundred  boys  and  seventy 
girls  under  its  care,  was  one  of  three  branches 
of  a  foundation  which  extended  the  same  or- 
ganization to  a  second  at  Overdieck,  where 
forty  boys  were  under  training,  and  a  third  at 
Toppenbroeck,  which  received  forty  boys  and 
twenty  girls. 

At  a  remarkable  institution  in  Kaiserwirth, 
the  Deaconesses'  Institute,  which  included  a 
kindergarten,  an  orphan  house,  a  training-school 
for  teachers,  a  Feierabendhaus  (which  means  a 
house  of  rest,  in  the  closing  years  of  life,  for 
those  who  have  labored  hard),  and  an  insane 
asylum,  Mr.  Letchworth  was  surprised  to  find 
a  new  building  for  the  insane  being  equipped 


i82     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

with  all  the  old-time  constructions  for  shutting 
them  behind  grated  windows  and  surrounding 
walls.  He  remarks  in  the  notebook  of  his  visit 
to  the  place  that  the  reverend  head  of  the  in- 
stitution "  apparently  had  never  heard  of  the 
no-restraint  system,"  and  "showed  all  these 
arrangements,  for  keeping  the  poor  patients 
like  wild  beasts  in  cells  and  apartments  of  strict 
security,  with  perfect  self-satisfaction." 

The  Prussian  Government  supports  two  re- 
formatories for  boys  —  Protestant  and  Catholic, 
respectively  —  for  the  Rhenish  Province  and 
the  Province  of  Hesse-Nassau.  One  of  these, 
at  Boppard-on-the-Rhine,  Mr.  Letchworth  vis- 
ited, expecting,  it  seems,  to  find  it  organized, 
as  it  was  said  to  be,  on  the  family  plan.  But  he 
failed  to  recognize  in  it  the  essential  character- 
istics of  that  system.  The  eighty-four  boys  of 
the  institution  were  grouped  ostensibly  in  four 
families  and  the  twenty  girls  in  one ;  but  the 
boys  slept  in  the  same  dormitory,  and  were  all 
together  at  play,  in  work,  and  at  school.  Their 
family  life  was  only  in  the  four  rooms  where 
they  ate  their  meals  together  and  sat  when  not 
otherwise  engaged.  Flogging  and  confinement 
in  dark  rooms  were  among  the  punishments 
permitted. 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  183 

Proceeding  from  Germany  into  Switzerland, 
Mr.  Letchworth's  first  visit  there  was  to  an 
admirably  conducted  City  Orphan 
House,  at  Bale,  from  which  he  ^  Switzer- 
brought  many  notes.  At  Burgholzli, 
near  Zurich,  he  examined  the  workings  of  an  ex- 
tensive asylum  for  the  insane,  and  could  not  ap- 
prove some  of  its  methods,  or  feel  persuaded 
that  the  influences  acting  on  the  patients  were 
what  they  ought  to  be.  He  questioned  espe- 
cially a  device  of  treatment  for  refractory  pa- 
tients, by  keeping  them  immersed,  sometimes 
for  hours,  in  hot-water  baths,  under  locked 
covers  to  the  tubs,  their  heads  protruding 
through  holes  in  these  covers. 

He  learned  at  Zurich  that,  generally,  in  the 
Swiss  cantons,  juvenile  lawbreakers  above  twelve 
years  of  age  were  sent  with  other  criminals  to 
the  common  prison  of  the  canton  ;  but  that 
houses  of  correction  for  such  young  delinquents 
were  in  contemplation.  Meantime  private  be- 
nevolence had  founded  a  considerable  number  of 
what  were  called  "  savings  institutions,"  for  the 
guarding  of  neglected  children  and  the  reclama- 
tion of  the  wayward.  Kasper  Appenzeller,  a 
Zurich  merchant,  gave  examples  of  this  which 
caused  his  name  to  be  connected  with  them, 


1 84     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCH  WORTH 

and  they  are  known  as  "  Appenzeller  Institu- 
tions." The  children  taken  were  bound  to  re- 
main four  years,  during  which  time  they  were 
industrially  trained,  and  on  leaving  they  received 
three  hundred  francs  each. 

Juvenile  refuges  or  reformatories  of  this  na- 
ture were  visited  by  Mr.  Letchworth  in  or  near 
Zurich,  Lucerne,  and  Berne ;  but  at  Berne  he 
found  also  reformatories  for  boys  and  for  girls 
established  and  supported  by  the  cantonal  gov- 
ernment, and  he  visited  both.  Boys  older  than 
twelve  years  were  committed  to  the  place  by  a 
judge ;  younger  ones  were  sent  by  the  poor- 
board.  For  girls  there  were  two  institutions, 
one  receiving  the  actually  depraved,  the  other 
taking  those  who  were  innocent,  but  morally 
imperilled.  The  boys  were  employed  only  at 
farming.  At  about  fifteen  years  of  age  they  went 
out  of  the  reformatory,  to  be  apprenticed  by 
the  director,  who  still  controlled  them,  and  in 
case  of  need  helped  them,  until  they  were  able 
to  support  themselves.  During  this  brief  stay 
in  Switzerland  Mr.  Letchworth  visited  many 
other  institutions  —  prisons,  orphanages,  schools 
for  the  deaf,  dumb,  blind,  and  idiotic,  and  schools 
for  the  poor. 

Coming  now  into  France,  the  most  interest- 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  185 

ing  subjects  of  study  that  he  found  were  the 
Mettray  Reformatory,  near  Tours,  dealing,  as 
he  remarked,  with  the  "  same  class 
of  boys  as  are  in  the  New  York 
House  of  Refuge,"  and  the  insane  asylum  at 
Clermont-en-Oise.  Of  course  he  visited,  at 
Paris,  La  Salpetriere  and  Bicetre,  where  the 
paupers  of  the  French  capital  are  collected, 
females  in  the  one,  men  in  the  other,  young 
and  old,  sane,  insane,  and  idiotic  together.  La 
Salpetriere,  in  its  population  of  more  than  six 
thousand,  included  nearly  six  hundred  of  un- 
sound mind;  but  it  had  "little  to  engage  the 
attention  of  the  inquirer  after  modern  meth- 
ods." Nor,  on  going  through  the  Asylum  of 
Sainte-Anne,  near  Paris,  was  Mr.  Letchworth 
able  quite  to  agree  in  opinion  with  many  French 
specialists  in  the  treatment  of  mental  diseases, 
who,  he  says,  considered  it  to  be  a  model  insti- 
tution. He  was  better  pleased  with  the  asylum 
at  Charenton,  in  the  suburbs  of  Paris;  but 
the  most  that  he  learned  in  France  concerning 
treatment  of  insanity  was  found  evidently  at 
Clermont-en-OIse. 

This  institution,  he  remarks.  In  describing  It, 
"  has  long  attracted  attention  by  reason  of  Its 
successful  plan  of  colonizing  the  insane";   the 


i86     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

central  asylum,  where  about  one  thousand  pa- 
tients were  accommodated,  sending  out  certain 
Clermont  selections  from  them  to  two  aux- 
colonies  of  iliary  establishments  in  its  neigh- 
the  insane  borhood,  called  the  colony  of  Fitz- 
James  and  the  colony  of  Villers,  where  more 
freedom  in  their  treatment  could  be  afforded. 
These  colonies  were  placed  on  more  than  a 
thousand  acres  of  farming  lands,  which  lands 
were  cultivated  by  the  patients,  under  a  system 
very  carefully  organized.  "  If  [he  explained]  a 
working  patient  betrays  symptoms  of  violence, 
or  becomes  from  any  cause  unmanageable,  he 
is  immediately  transferred  to  the  central  asylum ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  whenever  a  patient  in 
the  central  asylum  becomes  quiet  and  tractable 
he  is  removed  to  the  colony  and  its  industrial 
system.  There  is  thus  a  steady  and  highly 
beneficial  intercourse  between  the  two  divi- 
sions. .  .  .  The  examination  of  the  Clermont 
colonies  afforded  me  much  satisfaction."  But, 
says  the  writer,  in  conclusion,  "  the  satisfaction 
derived  from  the  inspection  of  the  colonies  of 
Fitz-James  and  Villers  did  not  extend  to  the 
central  institution  with  its  one  thousand  in- 
mates. Possibly  owing  to  the  large  numbers 
brought  under  one  management  and  the  bur- 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  187 

dens  incident  to  the  conducting  of  its  extended 
business  affairs,  the  central  asylum  at  Clermont 
did  not,  as  it  appeared  to  the  writer,  reach  a 
proper  standard  for  a  hospital  for  the  treatment 
of  the  acute  insane." 

In  the  "  Agricultural    Colony    for   the   Re- 
formation  of  Boys "  at   Mettray,  near  Tours, 

Mr.    Letchworth    could    study    an- 

....  ,  .   ,  ,    Mettray 

other  mstitution   which  represented   colony  for 

the  working-out  of  ideas  taken,  as  Reformation 
its  director  acknowledged,  from  the  °^^ 
Rauhe  Haus,  at  Hamburg.  There  were  dif- 
ferences in  the  development  of  those  ideas,  and 
they  were  applied  on  a  much  larger  scale ;  but 
this  produced  a  more  instructive  illustration  of 
them.  The  Mettray  colony,  when  Mr.  Letch- 
worth saw  it,  could  undertake  the  care  of  about 
eight  hundred  boys,  on  a  domain  which  em- 
braced fourteen  hundred  and  eighty  English 
acres  of  ground,  in  a  region  of  country  which 
his  notes  of  the  visit  described  as  "  charming." 
"  The  entrance  to  the  institution,"  he  noted, 
"looks  more  like  that  to  a  private  villa.  Vines 
and  creepers  seem  to  adorn  every  building. 
Gravel  walks  and  roads  are  in  every  part  of  the 
grounds." 

The  boys  under  correction  at  Mettray  are 


i88     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

sent  to  it  as  culprits  by  a  magistrate,  or  com- 
mitted for  discipline  and  training  by  the  "  Ad- 
ministration of  Public  Assistance,"  or  received 
as  ungovernable  youths  on  the  application  of 
parents  or  guardians.  Those  in  the  first  two 
classes  are  not  received  at  ages  above  sixteen 
years.  At  the  time  of  Mr.  Letchworth's  visit 
to  the  colony  it  had  under  treatment  between 
forty  and  fifty  of  the  boys  of  the  third  class, 
and  they  were  kept  in  a  "  family  "  by  them- 
selves. Otherwise  its  inmates  were  all  classified 
into  "  families  "  "  according  to  age  —  not  by 
moral  or  other  standards."  "  The  so-called  fam- 
ilies," he  noted,  "  consist  of  forty  to  fifty  boys 
who  sleep  and  dine  in  the  same  houses,  but 
work  and  go  to  school  by  other  divisions, — 
i.e.,  according  to  age  and  capacity.  .  .  .  The 
management  of  the  establishment  is  of  a  military 
order.  The  boys  wear  a  uniform  of  white  trou- 
sers, blue  blouses,  and  wooden  shoes "  ;  and 
their  assemblages  and  marchings  to  and  from 
work,  school,  etc.,  are  directed  by  bugle  calls. 
Each  family  had  its  "  house-father,"  who  slept 
in  the  dormitory  of  his  boys,  but,  as  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  noted,  did  not  dine  with  them.  Attempts 
at  running  away  from  the  colony  were  said  to 
be  rare,  and  almost  never  successful.   Of  punish- 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  189 

ments  permitted  Mr.  Letchworth  does  not  seem 
to  have  obtained  much  information,  but  a  gen- 
eral claim  of  kind  treatment  was  made. 

Leaving  France  early  in  October  and  pass- 
ing into  Belgium,  our  studious  tourist  found  a 

number  of  institutions   at   Brussels, 

/^i  J    A  1  •    I    1      1  In  Belgium 

Lrhent  and  Antwerp  which  had  sug- 
gestions of  importance  to  repay  his  painstaking 
investigation  of  them.  Moreover,  the  National 
Exposition  then  in  progress  at  Brussels  in- 
cluded a  section  devoted  to  exhibits,  from  sev- 
eral hospitals  for  the  insane,  of  work  done  by 
their  patients,  and  of  the  latest  improvements 
of  device  and  construction  for  use  in  connection 
with  the  treatment  of  the  insane.  These  latter 
were  shown  in  effective  contrast  with  the  bru- 
talities of  caging  and  shackling  which  had  pre- 
ceded them,  not  many  decades  before. 

An  orphanage  for  girls,  at  Brussels,  presented 
so  many  features  of  excellence  in  its  construc- 
tion, arrangement,  and  management, —  in  the 
amplitude  of  its  rooms  and  corridors,  the  salu- 
brity of  its  air  and  the  general  wholesomeness 
prevailing  in  it,  —  that  extensive  notes  of  the  in- 
stitution were  brought  away.  At  Ghent  or  Gand, 
too,  Mr.  Letchworth  found  a  large  orphanage 
for  boys,  of  corresponding  roominess  and  liber- 


190     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

ality  of  wholesome  arrangement,  together  with 
a  military  discipline  and  order  that  seemed  to 
be  of  good  effect.  But  of  Belgian  institutions, 
the  famous  Colony  of  Gheel,  not  far  from  Ant- 
werp, was  the  one  which  excited  his  deepest  in- 
terest. To  that  and  the  insane  asylum  of  Alt- 
Scherbitz,  in  Saxony,  he  gave  the  most  extended 
description  and  discussion  in  his  work,  on  "The 
Insane  in  Foreign  Countries." 

A  legend  of  the  seventh  century,  narrating 
the  persecution  and  martyrdom  of  an  Irish 
Colony  of  Christian  princess,  Dymphna,  by 
Gheel  for  her  own  father,  who  pursued  her 
the  insane  when  she  fled  from  him  and  slew 
her  at  Gheel,  gave  rise  to  the  belief  that  her 
grave  was  a  place  of  miraculous  healing,  espe- 
cially for  disorders  of  the  mind.  It  was  said  that 
St.  Dymphna  (for  she  was  canonized)  thought 
her  father  to  have  been  insane,  and  became  for 
that  reason  a  special  intercessor  for  all  who 
were  crazed.  Hence,  from  an  early  time,  de- 
mented persons  were  brought  to  Gheel,  for 
prayers  in  their  behalf  at  St.  Dymphna's  shrine, 
and  increasing  numbers  of  these  were  taken 
into  the  houses  of  the  neighborhood  for  lodge- 
ment and  care.  Until  about  the  beginning  of 
the  last  century  there  was  no  supervision  of  the 


STUDIES  IN  EUROPE  191 

treatment  of  these  unfortunates,  and  it  was 
reputed  to  be  heartless  and  ignorant  in  the  last 
degree.  Something  of  correction  was  then  at- 
tempted by  the  communes  which  sent  patients 
to  Gheel,  through  inspectors  of  their  own  ap- 
pointment, and  it  was  not  until  1850  that  the 
Belgian  Government  took  control  of  the  colony. 
Even  then  it  was  not  until  1862  that  a  central 
place  of  treatment  was  established,  to  fulfil  "  the 
functions  of  a  central  asylum,  or  observation 
station,  through  which  all  cases  received  into 
the  colony  must  pass,  and  to  which  are  returned 
such  as  are  unsuited  to  family  life." 

At  the   time  of  Mr.    Letchworth's   visit   to 
Gheel  this  central  institution  held  but  forty-six 
patients.  The  remainder  of  the  six-   opinion  of 
teen  hundred  and  thirty  insane  mem-  the  Gheel 
bers  of  the  colony  were  distributed   ^y^*^°^ 
in  the    dwellings  of  the    commune,   either    as 
private  boarders,  whose  friends  paid  for  their 
keeping,  or  as  paupers  (who  numbered  fourteen 
hundred),  the  scant  public  allowance  for  whose 
maintenance    ranged   from    two    hundred   and 
nineteen  to  three   hundred  and  thirteen  francs 
per  year.  As   stated   in    his   book,  the  primary 
aim   of  Mr.  Letchworth   in  visiting  Gheel  was 
to  make  an  examination  of  the  condition  of  the 


192     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

insane  in  these  homes,  and  his  three  days  at 
the  colony  were  spent  mostly  in  "going  from 
house  to  house  and  from  cottage  to  cottage, 
first  through  the  town  and  afterward  into  the 
surrounding  country."  In  his  published  account 
of  Gheel  he  has  described  minutely  the  con- 
ditions that  he  found  in  many  houses  that  he 
visited,  and  they  tell  their  own  story.  Very  sel- 
dom do  they  seem  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of 
health  and  comfort  even  moderately  well ;  and 
most  commonly  it  is  impossible  to  bring  into 
association  with  them  any  thought  of  comfort 
or  health. 

In  his  summary  of  conclusions  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  finds  some  advantages  in  the  home  life, 
the  occupations,  the  general  freedom  from  re- 
straint at  Gheel ;  but  against  these  stand  results 
that  come  inevitably  from  (i)  the  fact  that  "  the 
care  of  the  insane  is  relied  upon  by  the  people 
of  the  place  as  their  main  business  or  means  of 
money-making,"  and  is  therefore  commercial- 
ized in  spirit;  (2)  "the  straining  after  economy, 
which  regulates  the  rate  of  maintenance  [for 
the  pauper  insane],  affects  the  quality  of  the 
food,  and  also  influences,  prejudicially,  the  na- 
ture of  the  medical  and  other  supervision." 
Lack  of  bathing  facilities,  ventilation  and  pure 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  193 

water,  prevalence  of  damp  floors,  "  too  frequent 
proximity  of  stables  and  manure  heaps  to  the 
farm  cottages,"  and  other  marks  of  "a  lament- 
able indifference  to  sanitary  considerations," 
are  among  the  results  in  question.  A  reader  of 
Mr.  Letchworth's  chapter  on  the  Colony  of 
Gheel  is  prepared  fully  for  his  final  remark 
that  "  the  Gheel  system  is  of  little  practical 
value  to  America,  except  as  demonstrating  that 
a  great  amount  of  freedom  is  possible  in  the 
care  of  certain  classes  of  the  insane." 

In  Holland  Mr.  Letchworth  appears  to  have 
given  attention  only  to  the  reformatory  for 
boys,  near  Zutphen,  which  bears  the 
name  of  the  Netherland  Mettray, 
and  which  thereby  acknowledges  the  modelling 
of  its  organization  and  system  on  those  of  the 
French  institution  at  Mettray,  near  Tours. 
Inasmuch  as  the  latter  had  been  formed  upon 
principles  that  were  worked  out  originally  by 
Immanuel  Wichern,  at  the  Rauhe  Haus,  of 
Hamburg,  this  gave  our  American  investigator 
one  more  exhibit  of  the  working  of  the  family 
scheme  of  life,  in  groups  of  cottage  buildings, 
for  young  people  under  correctional  training. 
The  Netherland  Mettray  was  founded  in  1854 
by  a  private  individual,  W.  H.   Suringar,  and 


194     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

received  no  public  support.  The  boys  dealt 
with  were  sent  by  charitable  societies  or  brought 
by  parents,  who  paid  fixed  sums  per  year.  None 
had  developed  criminality,  but  were  inclined  to 
evil  ways.  The  only  punishment  ever  given  to 
them  was  confinement  in  a  solitary  chamber. 
The  discipline,  it  was  affirmed,  "  rests  on  love  "  ; 
"  a  perverse  boy  is  taken  aside  and  spoken  to 
kindly."  The  dormitories  were  not  locked; 
there  were  no  enclosing  walls  ;  the  runaways 
were  few.  Each  cottage  had  its  "  house-father," 
whose  room  adjoined  the  sitting-room  of  the 
boys.  Mr.  Letchworth  was  much  pleased  with 
the  institution  and  wrote  in  his  notes  :  "There 
is  the  look  of  a  natural  family  life  all  about  the 
place,  very  different  from  the  stiff,  military,  cold 
appearance  of  everything  about  the  Tours  Met- 
tray.  The  boys  look  healthy,  contented,  cheerful, 
animated  in  manner,  and  respectful.  Seeing  one 
of  them,  about  thirteen  years  old,  with  a  pipe 
in  his  mouth,  I  asked  if  the  boys  were  allowed 
to  smoke,  and  was  answered,  *  Yes,  a  little.* 
Far  from  recommending  the  same  license  to  be 
given  at  other  institutions,  I  would  call  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  this  permission  shows  how 
far  the  tone  and  feeling  of  familiarity  between 
teachers  and  pupils  is  carried  here."   The  final 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  195 

jotting  in  his  notebook  was  this :  "  The  boys 
are  remarkably  clean  ;  had  scarcely  any  odor 
about  them." 

Proceeding,  about  the  middle  of  October,  to 
England,  where  he  ended  his  European  tour, 

Mr.    Letchworth   remained   in    that 

.,         t     •      r  .  .       In  England 

country  until  early  m  January,  visit- 
ing many  insane  asylums,  juvenile  reformato- 
ries, workhouses  (corresponding  nearly  to  our 
poorhouses),  orphanages,  etc.,  but  also  enjoying 
somewhat  of  English  hospitality  and  indulging 
himself  in  a  well-earned  measure  of  recreation 
and  rest.  Of  institutions  for  the  insane  that  he 
inspected  we  have  extended  descriptions  in  his 
subsequent  work  on  the  subject ;  but  his  notes 
on  other  establishments  seem  never  to  have 
been  rewritten,  as  most  of  those  taken  on  the 
Continent  were,  and,  being  hasty  jottings  of 
the  moment,  pencilled  with  notebook  in  hand, 
they  are  sometimes  quite  illegible  now,  and  yield 
scanty  gleanings  of  information  as  to  what  he 
saw  and  with  what  effect  on  his  views. 

Generally,  in  the  English  asylums  for  the  in- 
sane he  found  a  spirit  of  humanity,  an  Engjjgjj  ^sy- 
enlightenment  of  methods,  a  degree  lumsforthe 
of  freedom  given  to  the  patients,  an   *°sane 
absence  of  mechanical  restraints,  a  cleanliness 


196     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

and  an  order  which  impressed  him  most  favor- 
ably ;  but  he  could  not  approve  the  magnitude 
of  most  of  them,  —  the  swarming  population 
they  hived  together,  —  the  scantiness  of  their 
grounds,  in  most  cases,  and  the  limited  num- 
ber of  attendants  employed.  Hanwell  Asylum, 
seven  miles  from  London,  interested  him  as 
having  been  the  place  in  which,  under  public 
auspices.  Dr.  Conolly,  nearly  half  a  century  be- 
fore, demonstrated  the  practicability  of  the  non- 
restraint  principle  in  treating  the  insane;  and 
it  pleased  him  to  learn  that  the  superintendent 
whom  he  met.  Dr.  Rayner,  "had  never  resorted 
to  mechanical  restraints  except  by  the  use  of 
gloves,  ...  in  exceptional  cases,  such  as  pre- 
venting a  patient  from  tearing  open  a  wound." 
But  his  observation  of  the  workings  of  the  in- 
stitution led  him  to  conclude  that,  "from  over- 
fulness,  restricted  airing-courts  and  grounds,  and 
the  presence  of  numbers  too  great  for  close  in- 
dividual inspection,  the  asylum  could  not  reach 
those  curative  results  which  the  enlightened 
principles  governing  it  would  seem  to  warrant." 
He  found  occasion  to  apply  somewhat  the  same 
criticism  to  several  others  of  the  English  asy- 
lums, but  not  to  all.  The  Brookwood  Asylum, 
one  of  three  provided  for  the  County  of  Surrey, 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  197 

and  situated  twenty-eight  miles  from  London, 
drew  from  him  nothing  but  praise.  "  Without 
architectural  display,"  he  wrote,  "or  other  ex- 
travagance, comfortable  and  proper  provision 
for  the  insane  seemed  to  be  here  attained  ;  and 
appropriate  as  were  the  fittings  and  furnishings 
of  this  institution,  that  which  impressed  me 
most  favorably  was  the  humane  spirit  pervad- 
ing its  entire  administration," 

In  Mr.Letchworth's  book  on  "The  Insane  in 
Foreign  Countries  "  there  are,  in  all,  fourteen 
of  the  English  institutions  quite  fully  «,j,j^ 
described.  It  is  probable  that  the  one  Friends' 
to  which  he  was  carried  by  the  strong-  ^^tr^at " 
est  attraction  and  with  the  warmest  feeling  of 
interest  was  "  The  Friends'  Retreat,"  near  the 
City  of  York.  "This,"  he  said  in  a  private  let- 
ter written  at  the  time  of  his  visit,  "was  the  first 
asylum  in  England,  if  not  in  the  world,  that  dis- 
pensed with  using  means  of  restraint  when  pa- 
tients are  violent."  In  his  book  he  vv^rote  of  it: 
"Projected  in  the  spring  of  1792  and  opened 
in  1796,  the  York  Retreat  is  memorable  as  the 
place  where  the  non-restraint  principle  was  first 
adopted  in  Great  Britain  —  where  William  Tuke, 
on  behalf  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  courage- 
ously renounced,  as  did  Pinel  at  Paris,  the  use 


198     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

of  chains  and  manacles  in  the  treatment  of  the 
insane.  .  .  .  The  Retreat,  a  private  institution, 
or  *  registered  hospital/  is  still  directed  by  those 
who  are,  for  the  most  part,  members  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Friends.  It  has  a  yearly  income  of  about 
$75,000.  The  buildings  are  old-fashioned,  but 
wear  an  aspect  of  unpretentious  comfort.  In  the 
oldest  part  some  of  the  arrangements  scarcely 
meet  all  modern  requirements.  ...  At  the  time 
of  my  visit  the  records  showed  one  hundred  and 
fifty-three  patients  —  sixty-four  men  and  eighty- 
nine  women.  ...  A  full  inspection  of  the  Re- 
treat, with  its  detached  cottages,  its  artfully 
screened  walls,  its  beautiful  recreation  grounds, 
and  its  wealth  of  flowers  within  and  without, 
suffices  to  convince  the  visitor  that  this  small 
and  select  institution,  which  well-nigh  a  hun- 
dred years  ago  proved  such  a  powerful  factor  in 
educating  and  elevating  public  opinion  in  Eng- 
land, retains  to  this  day  much  of  that  progressive 
spirit  and  humanity  of  purpose  upon  which  its 
world-wide  reputation  rests." 

Of  English  institutions  for  a  reformative  train- 
ing of  ill-doing  children  Mr.  Letchworth  visited 
a  large  number,  in  and  around  London,  Bristol, 
Liverpool,  Manchester,  Wakefield,  Sheffield, 
York,  Birmingham,  and  other  centres  of  popu- 


STUDIES  IN  EUROPE  199 

lation.  Writing  from  London,  of  the  week  be- 
tween October  18  and  24,  he  said  that  it  had 
been  devoted  entirely  to  institution-visiting,  and 
added:  "  I  have  collected  a  vast  fund  of  inform- 
ation which  I  hope  may  be  of  use  to  the  cause 
of  humanity  in  some  way  at  some  future  time." 
We  may  be  sure  that  this  fund  of  information 
went  into  the  guidance  and  stimulation  of  his 
subsequent  labors  ;  but  its  sources,  for  the  most 
part,  are  left  undisclosed,  so  far  as  concerns 
other  subjects  than  the  treatment  of  the  in- 
sane. 

To  Bristol  Mr.  Letchworth  was  drawn  espe- 
cially by  his  admiration  of  the  work  of  the  late 

Miss  Mary  Carpenter,  who  had  been, 

.  ,  Miss  Mary 

for  many  years,  with  tongue  and  pen   carpenter's 

and  personal  influence,  the  leader  of   reformatory 

h- 1 J  •  ^  ^        t     •       schools 

ild-savmg  movements,  not  only  m 

England,  but  widely  elsewhere  in  the  world. 
His  estimate  of  the  great  importance  of  Miss 
Carpenter's  labors  was  set  forth  in  a  sketch  of 
her  life  and  its  results  which  he  wrote  in  1889. 
He  has  left  in  this  an  account  of  two  of  the  re- 
formatory schools  which  she  established  in  Bris- 
tol, and  to  which  he  gave  close  attention  while 
there.  They  were  planned  for  the  reclaiming  of 
the  more  hardened  class  of  juvenile  offenders. 


200     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Miss  Carpenter's  first  undertaking  to  that  end 
was  in  the  establishment  of  the  Kingswood  Re- 
formatory, which  was  opened  in  1852,  on  pro- 
perty purchased  and  placed  at  her  disposal  by 
Mr.  Russell  Scott.  This  was  intended  originally 
for  both  boys  and  girls,  but  experience  dis- 
approved of  the  combination,  as  it  has  done 
generally  throughout  Europe,  and  a  separate 
institution,  the  Red  Lodge  Reformatory,  for 
girls,  was  established  in  another  part  of  the 
town.  The  grounds  and  the  building  —  an  an- 
cient Elizabethan  mansion  —  for  this  latter  in- 
stitution were  purchased  and  given  to  it  by 
Lady  Noel  Byron,  wife  of  the  poet. 

At  the  time  of  Mr.  Letchworth's  visit  to  it 
the  Kingswood  Reformatory  held  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  boys,  mostly  engaged  in 
the  making  of  pressed  brick.  Some,  however, 
were  employed  in  farm  work,  some  in  a  shop, 
mending  farm  tools,  some  in  tailoring,  some  in 
shoemaking,  some  in  household  tasks.  "The 
doors,"  he  wrote,  "were  open  throughout  the 
building,  and  the  place  was  not  enclosed,  nor 
were  there  any  guards.  Only  two  boys  were 
found  in  confinement."  In  the  Red  Lodge  Re- 
formatory, at  the  same  time,  there  were  fifty- 
two   girls,   "  all    sentenced   for   grave   offences, 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  201 

too  serious  for  committal  to  the  industrial 
school."  They  "were  generally  placed  out  after 
remaining  in  the  institution  two  years,  but  could 
be  recalled,  upon  any  act  of  misconduct,  to 
complete  their  sentence.  Beyond  this  they  were 
supervised  for  three  years  after  their  time  had 
expired.  .  .  .  After  three  months'  probation 
the  girls  received  a  portion  of  their  earnings, 
according  to  their  conduct  and  work.  .  .  .  Re- 
ligious teaching  and  moral  training  were  features 
in  the  institution;  the  rudiments  of  a  common- 
school  education  were  also  taught."  In  the  room 
which  Miss  Carpenter  had  occupied  when  per- 
sonally superintending  the  institution  hangs  a 
framed  government  document  which  certifies 
that  it  was  the  first  reformatory  school  for  girls 
established  in  England. 

Another  of  his  inspections  which  he  made  with 
peculiar  feelings  of  interest  was  at  a  reformatory 
for  boys,  near  Gloucester,  to  which  ^^^^  .  . 
he  alluded  soon  after,  in  his  paper  Court  Re- 
on  "Classification  and  Training  of  fo^matory 
Children,  Innocent  and   Incorrigible,"  read  at 
the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Cor- 
rection, at  Louisville,  In  1883,  —  as    follows: 
"When  in  England,  not  long  since,  I   had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  a  remarkable  person,  a  pub- 


202     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

He-spirited  magistrate,  whose  position  on  the 
bench  gave  him  unusual  opportunity  for  study- 
ing the  question  of  juvenile  delinquency.  He 
was  a  gentleman  of  culture  and  refinement,  as 
well  as  a  philanthropist,  and  is  now  regarded 
as  an  authority  on  all  matters  relating  to  crime 
and  correctional  methods.  Impressed  with  the 
importance  of  purifying  the  sources  of  evil 
with  which  he  had  officially  to  deal,  he,  of  his 
own  means  and  on  his  own  estate,  established 
a  reformatory  for  boys,  upon  a  basis  which  he 
had  long  deemed  a  right  one,  and  placed  it 
under  the  guidance  of  a  young  clergyman,  who 
gave  his  life  to  the  work  without  other  emolu- 
ment than  the  satisfaction  derived  from  doing 
good.  This  institution  has  become  a  model  of 
its  kind,  and  it  afforded  me  many  avenues  for 
study  while  there.  I  refer  to  the  Hardwicke 
Court  Reformatory,  near  Gloucester."  As  the 
guest  of  the  gentleman  thus  mentioned,  T.  Bar- 
wick  Lloyd  Baker  Esq.,  of  Hardwicke  Court, 
Mr.  Letchworth  spent  two  delightful  October 
days,  enjoying  the  opportunity,  as  he  wrote  to 
his  sister,  "  of  an  interior  view  of  the  social  life 
and  habits  of  a  genuine  country  squire,  the 
owner  of  a  Hall  surrounded  by  thousands  of 
acres  ";  and  opening  then  a  warm   friendship 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  203 

which  expressed  itself  in  intimate  correspond- 
ence until  Mr,  Baker's  death. 

Among  the  papers  that  have  come  into  the 
hands  of  the  writer  of  this  biography  is  one  en- 
titled "  Child-saving  Work  Abroad,"  on  which 
Mr.  Letchworth  had  endorsed  the  following 
note:  "I  cannot  now  (1907)  recall  upon  what 
occasion  the  paper  entitled  'Child-saving  Work 
Abroad '  was  used."  Probably  it  was  written 
not  long  after  his  return  from  the  investigations 
of  1880.  It  relates  to  what  he  saw  and  learned 
then,  but  mostly  to  the  charitable  rather  than 
the  reformative  institutions  for  children,  and 
almost  wholly  to  his  observations  in  the  British 
Isles.  His  first  remarks  in  it  indicate  the  deep 
impression  that  was  made  on  his  mind  by  the 
stress  which  he  had  found  to  be  laid  on  the 
importance  of  a  careful  classification  of  the  child- 
ren who  came  under  treatment  in  public  institu- 
tions, to  discriminate  between  three  characters 
in  which  they  come,  namely,  (i)  the  homeless 
and  destitute,  who  need  maintenance  ,  (2)  those 
who  are  making  wrong  beginnings  in  life, 
through  ill-training  or  endangering  associations, 
from  which  they  need  rescue;  and  (3)  those 
who  have  entered  the  criminal  class  or  belong 
to  it  by  birth.   He  had  felt  the  importance  of 


204     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

this  before  ;  but  it  seems  manifest  that  he  came 
home  with  a  deepened  conviction  that  such  an 
assorting  of  the  subjects  of  child-saving  work 
in  pubhc  institutions  had  a  rational  precedence 
of  everything  else. 

He  found  in  Great  Britain  a  lamentable  de- 
parture from  this  principle  in  one  serious  par- 
ticular, although,  otherwise,  the  principle  had 
careful  recognition.  "  The  larger  proportion  of 
the  children,"  he  wrote,  "belong  to  establish- 
ments in  connection  with  the  workhouse,  or,  as 
we  would  term  it,  the  poorhouse  or  almshouse. 
In  some  cases  the  pauper  establishments  [for 
children]  are  on  the  poorhouse  grounds ;  in 
others  they  are  separately  located.  These  re- 
marks apply  equally  to  England,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland."  Then  he  describes  one  which  he  vis- 
islted,  at  Sutton,  fourteen  miles  out  of  London, 
where  fifteen  hundred  and  seventy-four  child- 
ren were  housed,,  They  were  in  two  depart- 
ments, for  boys  and  for  girls,  occupying  "a 
large  tastefully  built  structure,"  on  a  good  site, 
with  well-kept  grounds;  but  the  place  seemed 
to  him  "cold,  dreary  and  formal,"  bearing,  "in- 
ternally and  externally,"  "  certain  well-marked 
features  of  a  pauper  establishment."  He  pro- 
ceeds next  to  describe  two  other  more  recently 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  '  205 

created  institutions  for  pauper  children  in  Eng- 
land which  gave  a  better  impression.  One  of 
these,  at  Banstead,  fifteen  miles  from  London, 
he  found  to  be  arranged  "  on  the  cottage  plan, 
which  is  growing  in  favor  with  large  numbers 
of  the  intelligent  and  benevolent,  who  dislike 
the  so-called  pauper  school."  Here  were  eight 
two-story  cottage  buildings  for  boys,  having 
twenty-six  in  each,  and  twelve  for  girls,  each  ac- 
commodating twenty-four.  Other  buildingscom- 
prised  infirmaries,  schools,  workshops,  chapel, 
superintendent's  residence,  and  office.  The 
other  of  these  institutions  which  he  visited,  at 
Marston  Green,  near  Birmingham,  showed  him 
fourteen  cottages,  arranged  as  on  a  village  street, 
seven  being  for  boys,  seven  for  girls,  thirty 
in  each.  "The  boys,"  he  tells  us,  "are  under 
the  charge  of  a  'father  and  mother';  the  girls 
receive  the  attention  of  a  mother.  The  male 
head  of  each  household  is  a  tradesman  or  me- 
chanic, who  imparts  to  the  boys  a  knowledge  of 
his  craft.  Work  and  schooling  are  taken  alter- 
nately." Here,  evidently,  are  ideas  taken  from 
Immanuel  Wichern  and  Rauhe  Haus. 

On  the  practice  in  England  and  Scotland 
of  boarding-out  large  numbers  of  orphaned 
and  otherwise  homeless  children  in  the   fami- 


2o6     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

lies  of  cottagers,  which  is  strongly  supported  by 

many  such  philanthropists  as  the  Misses  Hill, 

of    Birmingham,   he   savs:    "I    was 
The"board-  °  .     .        •', 

ing-out "  of    lorced  to  the  conviction  that  this  sys- 

homeless  tem  was  an  improvement  upon  insti- 
tutional life  as  it  exists  in  England." 
He  found  many  of  these  boarded-out  children 
"  placed  with  people  of  good  character,  under 
good  influences,  well  cared  for,  and  fairly  intro- 
duced into  what  may  be  termed  family  life. 
Nevertheless  the  fact  of  their  being  paid  for 
by  the  authorities  and  consequently  dependent 
seemed  to  prejudice  their  social  position."  In 
America  the  placing-out  of  such  children  in 
families  which  find  their  reward  later,  when  their 
little  guests  have  grown  to  an  age  of  usefulness 
in  the  family  work,  has,  in  his  view,  a  very  dif- 
ferent character,  "almost  unique." 

The  account  in  this  paper  of  reformatories 
and  industrial  schools  in  Great  Britain  is  en- 
tirely a  general  one  and  quite  brief.  "  Any 
number  of  individuals  may  organize  what  are 
termed  industrial  schools,"  which  are  located 
generally  in  the  suburbs  of  large  towns,  "  Re- 
formatories are  situated  in  the  country,  are  gen- 
erally small,  built  on  the  open  or  cottage  plan, 
and  must  be  inspected  or  certified  by  a  gov- 


STUDIES  IN   EUROPE  207 

ernment  officer."  In  England,  Scotland,  and 
Wales,  when  Mr.  Letchworth  wrote  of  them, 
there  were  about  two  hundred  of  the  reforma- 
tories and  schools,  training  upwards  of  twenty 
thousand  children  ;  besides  eight  government 
training-ships,  to  which  boys  are  sent  from  the 
reformatories  to  be  trained  for  the  British  mer- 
chant service.  "  Some  of  the  reformatory  schools," 
he  thought,  "might  be  regarded  as  models. 
They  are  generally  devoid  of  high  walls,  insti- 
tution aspect,  or  prison-like  characteristics.  The 
boys  occupy  cottages,  under  a  male  attendant 
or  married  couple.  In  fine  weather  they  have 
outdoor  work  on  the  farm ;  in  winter  they  work 
indoors  at  a  trade." 

In  closing  his  summary  review  of  "  Child- 
Saving  Work  Abroad,"  as  he  had  surveyed  it, 
Mr.  Letchworth  touched  a  question  so  inter- 
esting that  all  readers  must  regret  the  teserved- 
ness  of  his  reply  to  it. 

During  my  tour  of  inspection  [he  said]  the  question 
was  often  asked  me,  "  How  do  American  institutions 
compare  with  those  of  Britain  ?  "  It  is  a  question 
somewhat  difficult  to  answer.  On  a  broad  examina- 
tion I  am  constrained  to  think  that  both  have  some- 
thing to  learn,  the  one  from  the  other,  and  in  my 
opinion  an  international  conference  or  interchange  of 


2o8     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

ideas  could  not  fail  to  be  of  great  mutual  benefit.  I 
have  mentioned  that  the  reformatory  system  abroad 
exhibits  many  features  of  interest  to  us  ;  I  am  also 
bound  to  say  that  there  is  one  part  of  that  system  as 
administered  in  England  which  will  not  commend  it- 
self to  philanthropic  people  on  this  side  of  the  Atlan- 
tic. I  refer  to  the  rule  of  law  requiring  the  reforma- 
tory child  to  have  been  in  prison  at  least  ten  days,  be- 
fore being  admitted  to  a  reformatory, —  a  system,  be 
it  observed,  which  closes  the  door  of  the  industrial 
school  to  the  juvenile  offender.  The  spectacle  —  al- 
beit it  maybe  rare  —  of  so-called  "hardened  crim- 
inals," only  eight  years  old,  on  their  way  to  a  prison 
or  reformatory,  is  very  saddening,  and  I  am  glad  to  be 
able  to  state  that  in  several  places  reformatory  author- 
ities have  stood  out  against  receiving  boys  under 
twelve  years  on  a  first  conviction. 

What  he  had  learned  In  his  tour  of  foreign 
investigation  was  not  all  that  Commissioner 
Letchworth  brought  home  when  he  returned 
from  It,  early  in  January,  1881.  He  was  the 
medium  of  a  highly  important  gift  from  the 
English  Local  Government  Board  to  the  New 
Gift  of  Ene-  York  State  Board  of  Charities.  In 
lish  building-  recent  years  that  Board  had  acquired 
^^^^^  authority  to  control  the  planning  of 

all  buildings  provided  for  paupers,  and  the  ex- 
perts it  employed  had   been  making  great  im- 


STUDIES  IN  EUROPE  209 

provements  in  such  plans.  Commissioner  Letch- 
worth  was  permitted  to  examine  these,  and  they 
interested  him  so  much  that  Sir  John  Lam- 
bert, the  head  of  the  Board,  caused  copies  of  the 
most  approved  to  be  made  and  officially  trans- 
mitted to  the  New  York  State  Board,  along 
with  many  important  documents.  A  formal 
presentation  of  these  to  the  latter  Board  was 
made  by  Mr.  Letchworth  at  its  meeting  in 
March,  1881. 


CHAPTER   VI 

CHILD-SAVING    WORK:    REFORMATIVE 

From  his  observations  abroad  it  is  certain  that 
Mr.  Letchworth  brought  much  that  cleared  his 
understanding,  instructed  his  judgment,  broad- 
ened and  deepened  his  thought  concerning  the 
grave  and  difficult  matter  of  so  dealing  with 
errant  youth  as  to  train  it  into  better  courses  ; 
but  the  cardinal  convictions  of  his  mind  on  this 
subject  were  those  which  the  Rauhe  Haus  of 
Immanuel  Wichern,at  Hamburg,  and  its  varied 
copies  elsewhere  had  impressed  upon  him.  For  a 
time  it  became  his  chief  mission  to  plead  for  the 
transformation  of  juvenile  "houses  of  refuge" 
and  similar  so-called  reformatories  from  grim 
prisons  into  systematized  industrial  schools ; 
for  the  tearing  away  of  their  stone  walls  ;  for  the 
transplanting  of  them  into  open  country  sur- 
roundings ;  for  the  grouping  and  cottage-hous- 
ing of  their  pupil  inmates,  under  some  sem- 
blance of  the  associations  of  a  common  family 
life;  and  (before  all  else)  for  a  careful  classifica- 


n 
7, 

5 
y. 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE     211 

tion  of  juvenile  delinquents,  to  part  the  uncor- 
rupted  from  the  corrupt. 

It  will  be  necessary,  however,  before  taking 
up  the  record  of  his  work  for  the  betterment  of 
juvenile  reformatories  at  the  pointwhere  it  came 
to  be  influenced  by  his  investigations  abroad,  to 
go  back  a  little  in  time  and  make  note  of  what 
he  had  been  doing  previously  on  approximate 
lines.  Incidentally,  while  busied  with  his  earlier 
tasks,  he  had  been  seeing  and  learning  much  of 
the  workings  of  the  penal  and  correctional  insti- 
tutions of  the  country  and  of  their  dealing  with 
young  offenders  against  the  law.  He  had  come 
into  intimate  relations  with  people  who  were 
leading  the  undertakings  of  social  reform  in  that 
most  important  direction.  He  was  ^.  j^  , 
already  in  cooperation  with  Dr.  E.  the  prison 
C.  V^ines,  the  distinguished  secre-  associations 
tary  of  the  National  Prison  Association,  and  with 
Dr.  Elisha  Harris,  corresponding  secretary  of 
the  Prison  Association  of  New  York,  exchang- 
ing suggestion  and  counsel  with  both.  The  per- 
nicious unwisdom  and  carelessness  of  prevail- 
ing modes  of  dealing  with  vagrancies  and  the 
minor  breaches  of  social  order  were  then  greatly 
exercising  the  minds  of  these  earnest  philan- 
thropists and  the  associations  with  which  they 


212     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

labored,  and  juvenile  delinquency  was  involved 
gravely  in  the  depraving  influences  found  here. 
In  September,  1874,  the  second  year  of  Mr. 
Letchworth's  official  service,  Dr.  Harris  had 
submitted  to  the  State  Board  of  Charities  a  pro- 
posal of  joint  effort  to  secure  in  the  State  of  New 
York  a  "suitable  and  effectual  system  of  local 
workhouses,  which  shall  be  truly  institutions  or 
places  of  correctional  treatment  for  the  classes 
which  now  infest  society  by  tramping,  begging, 
hanging  upon  almshouses,  as  well  as  by  prac- 
tising various  crimes  and  offensive  courses  of 
life."  The  objects  sought  were  to  suppress 
vagrancy;  to  save  "the  young,  the  innocent, 
and  reformable  classes"  of  persons  who  might 
be  drifting  into  vagrancy  from  being  brought 
"into  the  community  and  conversation"  of  the 
radically  debased  class;  and,  finally,  to  cure 
"the  great  evils  that  exist  in  the  county  jails, 
by  affording  means  of  immediate  and  effectual 
removal  and  suitable  discipline  for  persons  con- 
victed of  misdemeanors,  and  who  under  existing 
laws  and  usages  remain  in  the  jails,  to  expiate 
their  offences  by  a  moral  and  physical  kind  of 
slow  death."  The  State  Board  of  Charities  was 
asked  to  appoint  a  committee  for  a  conference 
with   a   committee  of  the   Prison  Association, 


CHILD-SAVING:   REFORMATIVE     213 

looking  toward  a  united  undertaking  to  obtain 
proper  legislation  on  these  lines.  The  Board  of 
Charities  responded  to  the  request,  and  Mr. 
Letchworth  was  a  member  of  the  committee 
named.  His  correspondence  with  Dr.  Harris, 
intimate  and  extensive  from  that  time,  shows 
that  discussion  of  the  project  of  legislation  went 
through  a  long  period,  to  no  conclusive  action; 
and  shows,  too,  that  its  inconclusiveness  was  be- 
cause the  time  for  so  broad  a  reform  was  not  yet 
ripe. 

Mr.  Letchworth's  interest  in  the  matter  was 
fully  aroused,  especially  in  its  bearing  on  the 

exposure  of  the  young  to  corrupting  ^^„^ 

r  .  r       o  Children  in 

associations,  and    his   own  observa-  jaiis  and 
tions  soon  confirmed  all  that  was  said  penitenti-    ' 

0.1*16  S 

of  the  seriousness  of  the  evil  by  Dr. 
Harris  and  other  investigators  of  our  jails  and 
other  penal  institutions.  In  December,  1875,  ^^ 
asked  the  secretary  of  his  Board  to  bring  the 
matter  to  the  attention  of  Governor  Tilden, 
and  to  request  him,  in  his  forthcoming  annual 
message,  to  recommend  legislation  for  securing 
the  removal  of  children,  not  only  from  poor- 
houses,  as  had  been  done,  but  from  common 
jails  and  from  all  association  with  adult  paupers 
and  criminals. 


214     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

The  law  of  the  last  legislature  [he  wrote]  requires 
this  to  be  effected  now  in  poorhouses  and  almshouses, 
and  previously  enacted  laws  require  it  to  be  enforced 
in  penitentiaries;  but  for  some  reason,  perhaps  of  de- 
fect in  the  law,  it  is  practically  disregarded.  In  nearly 
all  of  the  penitentiaries  in  the  state,  as  well  as  the 
state's  prisons,  considerable  numbers  are  to  be  found 
under  sixteen  years  of  age.  In  the  penitentiaries  some 
are  mere  children.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  law  should 
be  made,  not  only  more  restrictive,  but  to  apply  also 
to  jails  and  lockups,  and  that  the  principle  of  dis- 
sociating children  from  adult  paupers  and  criminals 
should  be  held  as  fundamental.  When  at  Hart's 
Island,  in  October,  I  saw  eleven  children  intermingled 
with  a  gang  of  sixty  criminals  emerge  from  the  hold 
of  the  steamer  belonging  to  the  Department  of  Public 
Charities  in  New  York. 

Some  slight  and  partial  allusion  to  the  sub- 
ject was  made  by  the  governor  In  his  subse- 
quent message,  but  nothing  that  was  likely  to 
produce  legislative  results.  Two  years  after  this 
appeal  to  a  right-minded  governor  for  help  in 
obtaining  remedies  of  law  for  a  most  dangerous 
social  infection  there  is  evidence  that  no  pro- 
gress toward  such  remedies  had  been  made. 
Mrs.  Lowell,  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities, 
was  heart  and  soul  with  Mr.  Letchworth  in 
this   line  of  work.  Two  letters  written  by  Dr. 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    215 

Harris,  of  the  Prison  Association,  on  the  same 
day,  January  23,  1877,  ^^^  addressed  to  Mrs. 
Lowell  and  the  other  to  Mr.  Letchworth,  tell 
us  what  was  the  state  of  things  at  that  time. 
To  Mrs.  Lowell  he  wrote  :  — 

Most  people  do  not  see  our  magistrates  and  police 
justices  as  I  see  them, —  utterly  indifferent  to  the 
questions,  Is  this  offender  a  child  ?  and  Is  the  child 
under  sixteen  years  old  ?  From  our  city  recorders  and 
the  supreme  court  I  have  seen  boys  under  sixteen 
years  old  marched  into  Sing  Sing.  At  Syracuse  I  found 
a  child  under  eleven  years  old  in  the  penitentiary,  as  a 
vagrant,  sentenced  for  sixty  days.  There  is  no  law  to 
forbid  such  sentences,  and  even  when  a  child  is  found 
in  state  prison  the  governor  must  act —  if  he  can  be 
induced  to  act — to  order  the  child's  transfer  to  the 
House  of  Refuge.  ...  I  have  found  children  under 
sentence  and  serving  out  their  term  of  punishment  in 
nearly  every  jail  in  the  state^  in  every  penitentiary^  and 
in  every  prison.  Yet  I  might  reiterate  the  facts  for  ten 
years,  vainly  hoping  to  induce  action  ;  but  if  a  revision 
of  all  the  statutes  in  a  brief  act  is  attempted  I  believe 
we  could  obtain  the  law  now  needed.  The  existing 
statutes  readily  permit  the  imprisonment  of  children, 
first,  by  not  directly  prohibiting  the  sentence  of  a 
child  to  any  one  of  the  three  classes  of  prisons  j  second, 
by  accepting  the  judge's  decision  as  to  the  age  of  a 
juvenile  offender;  but,  from  1826,  1830,  1846,  1850, 


2i6     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

and  1852,  every  allusion  to  juvenile  offenders  con- 
structively implies  that  they  are  not  to  be  sentenced 
to  jail,  penitentiary,  or  state  prison. 

In  his  simultaneous  letter  to  Mr.  Letchworth 
Dr.  Harris  wrote  :  — 

I  am  soon  to  visit  all  the  jails  and  penitentiaries 
and  I  shall  closely  record  the  cases  I  meet  with ;  but 
no  office,  no  officer,  no  records  existing  now  can  give 
us  the  facts  you  seek.  A  child  eleven  years  old  told 
your  Buffalo  police  magistrate,  "  I  don't  know  my 
age."  I  saw  him  in  the  penitentiary  and  talked  with 
him.  Captain  Felton  knew  his  age.  He  was  only  a 
homeless  child,  wandering  all  the  way  from  London, 
England,  to  London  in  Canada,  and  to  Buffalo.  In 
Albany  I  saw  a  case  fifteen  years  old;  in  Syracuse 
one  nine  or  ten;  in  Rochester  five  cases  under  fifteen, 
all  in  for  one  year.  ...  In  fifty  jails  I  have  seen 
child  convicts,  and  in  the  state  prisons  I  have  seen 
case  after  case. 

According  to  what  was  told  of  conditions  pre- 
vailing generally  in  thejailsof  the  United  States, 
within  the  period  in  which  these  statements 
were  made,  the  placing  of  children  in  them  was 
iniquitous  beyond  measure.  Said  Dr.  Wines,  in 
the  report  of  the  National  Prison  Association, 
adopted  at  its  congress  of  1874:  "If  by  some 
supernatural    process    our    two    thousand  jails 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    217 

could  be  unroofed,  and  the  things  they  conceal 
be  thus  instantly  exposed  to  our  view,  a  shriek 
would  go  up  from  this  congress  and  country 
which  would  not  only  reach  every  corner  of  the 
land,  but  be  heard,  in  Scripture  phrase,  'to  the 
very  ends  of  the  earth.'"  In  1877  a  conference 
of  prison  keepers  and  observers,  held  at  New- 
port, Rhode  Island,  adopted  a  report  which  said, 
among  other  things, this:  "The  system  of  county 
jails  in  the  United  States  is  a  disgrace  to  our 
civilization.  It  is  hopelessly  bad,  and  must  re- 
main so  as  long  as  it  exists  under  its  present 
form.  De  Tocqueville,  half  a  century  ago,  pro- 
nounced our  county  jails  'the  worst  prisons  he 
had  ever  seen,'  and  there  has  been  little  marked 
improvement  since." 

Officially,  Mr.  Letchworth  had  no  authority 
or  any  other  standing  than  as  a  citizen  for  ac- 
tion against  these  abominations  of  the   _   . 
prison  system.  By  jommg  hands  with   the  Prison 
the  Prison  Association  of  New  York  Association 

L      i_  ,L-   •         ^         ^    •       ^u       of  New  York 

he  became  a  participant,  not  in  the 

exercise  of  any  actual  power  of  reformation,  but 

in  the  use  of  a  right  of  inspection  and  criticism 

which   had  no   small  importance.   In  January, 

1876,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Executive 

Committee  of  the  Prison  Association,  and  thus 


21 8     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

came  into  close  relations  with  its  work.  Later  he 
was  one  of  its  vice-presidents.  Little  record  of  his 
personal  action  in  those  relations  can  be  found  ; 
but  we  may  be  sure  that  it  was  no  perfunctory 
performance,  and  that  he  bore  as  active  a  part  as 
his  official  labors  would  permit  in  the  counsels 
and  the  undertakings  of  the  Association  during 
some  subsequent  years.  It  worked  against  great 
obstacles,  and  the  progress  of  prison  reform  was 
slow.  It  was  not  until  1895  ^^^^  the  administra- 
tion of  prisons  in  the  State  of  New  York  was 
importantly  changed,  by  the  creation  of  the  State 
Commission  of  Prisons;  and  that  commission, 
in  its  third  annual  report,  was  even  then  com- 
pelled to  give  a  bad  account  of  the  majority  of 
the  county  jails  in  the  state.  It  said  of  them  that 
they  "are  relics  of  another  generation,  when  the 
sole  object  was  confinement,  and  no  considera- 
tion was  given  to  the  health  or  reformation  of 
the  inmates." 

Over  juvenile  reformatory  institutions  the 
State  Board  of  Charities  exercised  a  jurisdiction 
which  included  something  of  authority  and 
much  more  of  influence  to  correct  mismanage- 
ment in  them.  Here,  therefore,  was  his  main 
field  of  child-saving  work,  when  the  rescue  of 
the  homeless  from  pauperism  had  been  achieved. 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    219 

and  his  thought  and  labor  could  be  turned  to 
the  ill-doing  boys  and  girls,  out  of  whom  it  is 
the  need  and  the  duty  of  society  to  make  well- 
doing men  and  women  if  it  can.  This  side  of 
the  child-saving  appeal  had  been  urgent  to  him 
from  his  first  barkening  to  that  call ;  and  his 
earliest  scrutiny  of  the  facts  to  be  dealt  with 
showed  him  exactly  what  needed  most  to  be 
done.  We  learn  this  from  an  undated  memoran- 
dum, found  among  his  papers,  which  probably 
was  written  in  his  later  years.  In  this  he  says  :  — 

In  the  eady  days  of  my  examination  of  institutions 
and  the  means  established  for  the  reformation  of  ju- 
venile delinquents,  I  was  strongly  impressed  with  the 
disregard  of  proper  classification  and  the  indifference 
shown  to  this  subject.  This  was  particularly  the  case 
in  New  York  State,  Massachusetts  had  largely  broken 
away  from  the  old  system,  by  the  establishment  of  a 
state  agency,  with  a  probation  system,  Ohio  had  es- 
tablished its  reform  school  for  boys  on  the  cottage  plan, 
at  Lancaster,  and  for  girls,  on  the  same  plan,  at  Dela- 
ware. Under  the  direction  of  Governor  Bagley,  Michi- 
gan changed  its  State  Reform  School,  at  Lansing,  from 
the  congregate  plan  to  the  cottage  plan  ;  afterwards 
founding  the  Lancaster  School  for  girls,  on  the  cot- 
tage plan  at  Adrian.  Advances  in  other  states  might 
be  mentioned,  but,  until  a  recent  date.  New  York  State 
has  been  signally  apathetic  on  this  subject. 


220     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

When  my  attention  was  first  directed  to  the  matter 
I  found  that  the  innocent  and  the  incorrigible  were 
Sh  mpf  1  indiscriminately  commingled  in  institu- 
conditions  tional  life.  Once,  on  entering  the  House 
in  New  York  of  Refuge  at  Randall's  Island,  I  found  a 
group  of  boys  who  had  just  entered  and  were  being 
registered,  preparatory  to  being  taken  to  their  wards 
and  cells,  which  were  on  the  same  plan  as  those  in 
state  prisons.  ...  I  asked  one  little  boy,  who  was  sit- 
ting with  others  on  a  wooden  bench  and  swinging  his 
legs  in  a  "  happy  go  lucky  "  way,  what  he  had  been 
sent  there  for  ?  "  Oh,"  he  replied,  with  much  gusto, 
"  for  stealing  a  horse."  I  found  afterwards  that  he  and 
some  other  boys,  in  a  frolicsome  spirit,  had  got  into 
a  grocer's  wagon  and  driven  off.  He  was  arrested  on  a 
charge  of  felony  and  sentenced  to  imprisonment  dur- 
ing the  long  years  of  his  minority,  his  name  forever 
branded  with  infamy  —  a  brand  which,  by  judgment 
record,  time  could  never  efface.  .  .  . 

Once,  on  visiting  a  reform  school,  my  attention 
was  directed  to  a  nice-looking  lad,  who  was  standing 
in  the  corner  of  the  yard  with  his  face  against  the 
angle  of  the  brick  wall,  sobbing  bitterly.  The  super- 
intendent said  he  had  been  in  the  institution  three  days, 
during  all  which  time  he  had  been  crying  and  had  kept 
aloof  from  the  other  boys.  This  boy  was  in  a  mood 
to  be  reformed,  and  it  saddened  me  to  think  that  he 
could  not  be  properly  dealt  with,  in  his  repentant  mood, 
instead  of  being  subjected  to  close  companionship  with 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE     221 

evil  associates.  .  .  .  This  lad  was  but  a  type  of  great 
numbers  I  have  seen,  who  should  never  have  been 
committed  to  such  institutions.  Many  thousands  of 
children  in  the  State  of  New  York  who  were  simply 
wayward  —  whose  parents,  perhaps,  were  more  at  fault 
than  the  children  —  who  were  what  they  were  because 
of  evil  environments,  and  who  needed  only  mild  cor- 
rectional treatment  —  have  been  subjected  to  the  great 
wrong  of  commitment  to  institutions  which  brought 
them  into  intimate  association  with  the  hardened,  the 
incorrigible.  In  such  establishments  I  have  known  of 
secret  organizations  of  bad  boys  who  taught  the  inno- 
cent newcomers  all  manner  of  criminal  practices,  in- 
cluding pocket-picking,  house-breaking,  and  how 
effectually  to  commit  rape. 

Apparently,  Mr.  Letchworth's  first  public 
utterance  of  opinion  on  modes  of  dealing  with 
juvenile  delinquency  was  in  1877,  at  First  ex- 
the  National  Conference  of  Charities  f.'^^j^'^"  °°_ 
and  Correction  at  Saratoga.  He  was  tion" 
one  of  a  committee  which  had  been  appointed 
to  report  on  "  Dependent  and  Delinquent  Chil- 
dren "  ;  but  the  committee  had  not  been  able 
to  confer,  and  in  a  personal  report  that  he  sub- 
mitted he  limited  himself  mostly  to  a  sketch  of 
the  history  of  the  development,  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  of  both  charitable  and  reformatory 
institutions  for  children.  To  this  historical  re- 


222     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

view  he  added  a  brief  discussion  of  unsatisfied 
needs  as  he  saw  them.  On  the  reformatory  side 
he  went  no  further  than  to  endorse  a  resolution 
adopted  at  the  last  preceding  State  Convention 
of  Superintendents  of  the  Poor,  in  New  York, 
which  urged  that  "  institutions  of  a  correctional 
character,  and  intermediate  between  the  orphan 
asylum  and  the  house  of  refuge,  are  needed,  and 
that  those  institutions  will  attain  the  best  results 
the  more  nearly  they  conform  to  the  family 
system."   On  this  he  said:  — 

In  our  orphan  asylums  it  has  been  found  that  a  class 
of  children  float  into  them  who  need  a  restraint  and 
discipline  that  cannot  be  enforced  in  such  institutions. 
The  presence  in  orphan  asylums  of  children  who  are 
uncontrollable  under  ordinary  rules  exercises  an  injur- 
ious effect  upon  the  other  children.  .  .  .  The  Interest, 
both  of  an  ungovernable  child  and  of  the  institution 
itself,  requires  its  removal.  To  place  such  a  child  in 
a  house  of  refuge,  among  incorrigible  and  hardened 
offenders,  many  of  them  mature  in  years  and  crime, 
is  evidently  unwise,  and  must  result  in  an  influence 
being  exerted  on  him  proportionately  as  injurious  as  his 
influence  was  injurious  upon  the  children  in  the  insti- 
tution from  which  he  was  removed.  There  are  also, 
in  every  county  throughout  the  State,  considerable 
numbers  of  children  who  have  broken  loose  from 
parental  control,  who  need  some  kind  of  reformatory 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    223 

training,  and  whom  to  send  to  houses  of  refuge  would 
be  impolitic  and  unjust.  In  these  institutions,  as  at 
present  constituted,  proper  classification  is  not  practi- 
cable. 

This  seems  to  have  been  his  first  protest 
against  the  indiscriminate  penalizing  of  all  de- 
grees of  juvenile  delinquency, —  his  first  plea 
for  a  rational  classification  of  offences  and  of- 
fenders amongst  the  young.  It  was  a  plea  which 
became  more  and  more  urgent  from  him  in 
subsequent  years.  From  the  months  he  spent 
abroad,  in  1880,  visiting  institutions  and  study- 
ing methods  of  public  benevolence,  he  came 
back  with  convictions  and  feelings  on  this  point 
confirmed  and  intensified.  He  had  gathered  in- 
struction on  many  lines  from  his  questioning  of 
foreign  experience  and  practice,  but  none  more 
decisive  than  this,  of  the  importance  of  a  system- 
atic classification  in  the  treatment  of  children 
with  whom  the  law  has  to  deal.  He  had  found 
that,  generally,  this  was  recognized  and  acted 
upon  more  fully  in  other  countries  than  in  ours, 
and  that  thereby  they  were  advanced  a  step  be- 
yond us.  It  now  became  one  of  his  most  earn- 
est endeavors  to  create  a  right  view  and  a  right 
feeling  on  the  subject  in  the  American  mind. 

A  flagrant  illustration  of  the  need  of  that  en- 


224     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

lightenment  was  afforded  in  the  spring  of  1882, 

when    he    discovered   a    bill    making    progress 

^   through  the  legislature  of  New  York, 
The  case  of       ,  .   , 
the  Western   which  purported  to  have  no  other  ob- 

House  of       ject  than  the  changing  of  the  name 

of  the  Western  House  of  Refuge,  at 

Rochester,  but  which  actually  was   intended  to 

increase  in  that  prisonlike  institution  an  already 

abominable  disregard  of  grades  and  qualities  in 

juvenile  transgressions.  Making  haste  to  Albany, 

he  secured  a  hearing  before  the  committee  which 

had  the  bill  in  charge,  and  made,  in  a  brief  but 

effectual  address,  such  an  exposure  of  its  naked 

purpose  that  it  seems  to   have  died  then  and 

there.   "  Should  this  bill  become  a  law,"  he  said 

to   the   committee,   "  the   anomalous   spectacle 

would  be  presented  of  a  heterogeneous  collection 

in  one  institution  of  the  following  classes  of 

children,  embracing  both  sexes:  first,  the  felon; 

second,  the  thief;  third,  the  child  arrested  for 

assault  and  battery  ;  fourth,  the  disorderly;  fifth, 

the  malicious  ;  sixth,  the  truant  from  school ; 

seventh,   the  child  arrested   for  begging   from 

door   to   door;   eighth,   the   abandoned   child; 

ninth,   the    neglected   child ;   tenth,   the   street 

prostitute." 

The  Western  House  of  Refuge  did  obtain 


CHILD-SAVING:   REFORMATIVE     225 

the  better  name  desired  for  it,  and  it  was  saved 
from  an  atrocious  misuse,  to  become  one  of  the 
truest  reformative  institutions  in  the  United 
States. 

At  the  Tenth  National  Conference  of  Chari- 
ties and  Correction,  held  at  Louisville,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1883,  in  a  paper  entitled  j^e  inno- 
"  Classification  and  Training  of  Chil-  cent  and  the 
dren,  Innocent  and  Incorrigible,"  he  incorrigible 
discussed  the  subject  broadly  and  at  length.  In 
this  paper  he  quoted  from  correspondence  he 
had  had  with  the  notable  English  magistrate, 
T.  B.  LI.  Baker,  Esq.,  of  Hardwicke  Court,  who 
had  founded  a  reformatory  for  boys  on  his  own 
estate,  and  whom  he  had  visited  while  in  England 
three  years  before.  Among  the  observations  of 
Mr.  Baker  was  this  :  "The  notion  of  putting  a 
large  number  of  boys  together,  of  all  sorts,  seems 
very  wild.  Of  course  I  cannot  say  that  such  a 
system  may  not  answer  with  you  ;  though  if  any 
man  were  to  propose  a  similar  plan  here  we 
should  consider  it  equivalent  to  a  certificate  of 
lunacy." 

For  the  basis  of  a  proper  classification  of  the 
children  coming  under  public  care,  for  either 
support  or  correction,  Mr.  Letchworth  proposed 
the  following  fourfold  division  :  — 


226     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

(i)  The  homeless  and  destitute  through 
death  or  poverty  of  parents. 

(2)  Truants  from  school. 

(3)  Children  rebellious  of  parental  control; 
those  guilty  of  petty  offences  and  unsuited  to 
orphanages,  including  vagrants  and  those  in 
danger  of  falling. 

(4)  Boys  and  girls  of  hardened  nature  or 
hereditary  vicious  propensities,  who  are  guilty 
of  felonious  offences. 

Orphanages  for  the  first  class,  schools  for 
truants  for  the  second,  industrial  schools  for 
the  third,  reform  schools  for  the  fourth,  were 
the  several  agencies  of  care  and  discipline  recom- 
mended. That  reformatories  for  boys  and  girls 
should  be,  in  all  cases,  distinct  institutions  was 
urged  strongly  as  a  conclusion  to  which  all 
experience  led.  In  the  same  paper  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  drew  attention  to  legislation  in  Massa- 
chusetts which  provides  "for  the  appointment 
of  a  state  agent,  who,  in  a  certain  sense,  acts  as 
counsel  for  juvenile  offenders."  This  officer 
must  be  notified  of  complaints  in  court  pending 
against  any  boy  or  girl  under  seventeen  years 
of  age,  and  have  opportunity  to  investigate 
the  case  as  well  as  to  attend  the  trial.  On  his 
request  the  court  was  authorized  to  refer  the 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    227 

disposition  of  the  child  to  the  State  Board  of 
Health,  Lunacy  and  Charity.  Having  given 
considerable  time  to  a  personal  investigation,  in 
Massachusetts,  of  the  working  of  this  system, 
Mr.  Letchworth  had  secured  the  attendance  of 
the  Massachusetts  State  Agent,  Mr.  Gardner 
Tufts,  at  the  meeting  of  the  National  Confer- 
ence of  Charities  and  Correction  in  1880,  with 
a  paper  on  the  working  of  the  Massachusetts 
system,  which  awakened  much  interest,  here 
and  abroad. 

As  president  of  the  Eleventh  National  Con- 
ference, at  St.  Louis,  in  1884,  Mr.  Letchworth, 
in  his  opening  address,  put  the  em-  ^^^^  Massa- 
phasis  of  his  thought  on  preventive  chusetts 
aims  in  charitable  and  reformative  ^y^*®™ 
work,  as  the  primary  rule.  "Try  to  lessen  the 
number  of  inmates  in  institutions  of  all  kinds, 
rather  than  increase  them,  especially  in  institu- 
tions for  children,"  he  said.  "The  institution  is 
something  to  be  used  only  as  a  last  resort. 
The  Massachusetts  plan  of  dealing  with  juve- 
nile offenders  appears  to  me  worthy  of  general 
adoption."  Briefly  explaining  the  suspension 
of  judicial  sentence  which  this  permitted,  while 
the  young  delinquent  was  kept  under  surveil- 
lance by  the  state  agent,  he  went  on  to  say: 


228     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

"Meanwhile  the  agent  influences  the  boy  and 
his  parents  or  guardians  for  his  reformation, 
and  reports  to  the  court.  If  the  dehnquent  im- 
proves, the  sentence  is  still  further  suspended. 
...  If  it  becomes  necessary,  however,  to  com- 
mit the  offender  to  an  institution,  the  agent  is 
consulted  as  to  what  institution  he  shall  be  sent 
to;  but  the  paternal  care  of  the  state  does  not 
cease  here.  It  follows  the  delinquent  to  the 
institution,  where,  if  it  be  found  that  his  inter- 
est or  that  of  the  institution  will  be  promoted 
by  a  change,  he  is  transferred  elsewhere,  on  the 
recommendation  of  the  state  agent." 

Massachusetts,  it  will  be  seen,  had  conceived 
and  acted  on  the  idea  of  "probation"  more 
than  thirty  years  ago,  and  Mr.  Letchworth  was 
one  of  the  first  of  the  missionaries  of  its  propa- 
gation. The  Massachusetts  State  Agency,  in 
fact,  had  been  doing  its  work  of  assistance  to 
the  courts  in  dealing  with  juvenile  transgressors 
of  law  since  1869,  and  other  states  had  given 
little  heed  to  the  example.  But  that  example 
was  held  persistently  by  Commissioner  Letch- 
worth before  the  National  Conference  of  Char- 
ities and  Correction,  in  addresses  and  papers 
which  returned  to  it  again  and  again. 

At   the   meeting  of  1886,  in   St.  Paul,   he 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    229 

presented  one  of  the  ablest  of  his  essays  on 
social  questions  touching  the  young,  entitling 
it  "The  Children  of  the  State."  In  jyjj.^  Letch- 
this  he  ventured  "  to  hazard,"  as  worth's  plan 
he  expressed  his  undertaking,  "the  °l^^^^^f 
presentation  of  a  plan  [of  dealing  nile  delin- 
with  juvenile  delinquents]  which  is,"  q^ency 
he  said,  "the  outgrowth  of  close  study  of  the 
views  of  specialists  in  reformatory  work  in 
different  countries,  and  of  extended  personal 
observation."  His  plan  started,  of  course,  with 
classification  for  its  fundamental  requirement, 
to  discriminate  with  care  between  the  truant, 
the  homeless  child,  the  wayward,  the  vagrant, 
the  disorderly,  the  thief,  and  the  felon.  It 
demanded,  too,  the  reformative  training  of  boys 
and  girls  in  entirely  separate  institutions.  It 
condemned  institutions  of  so  great  a  size  and 
congregating  such  large  numbers  that  individu- 
ality is  lost  and  children  have  to  be  known  by 
number  instead  of  by  name.  Beyond  these 
radical  principles  he  framed  his  plan  essen- 
tially on  the  lines  of  the  Massachusetts  State 
Agency  system,  and  a  kindred  system  of  county 
visitors  in  Michigan,  which  he  had  studied 
and  referred  to  with  approbation  more  than 
once. 


230     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

A  central  unpaid  supervising  board,  independent  of 
political  influence  [he  advised]  ,  should  direct  the  work, 
with  power  to  appoint  a  paid  state  agent,  and  an  un- 
salaried agent  in  every  county,  who  shall  be  one  of  a 
committee  of  visitors,  likewise  appointed  by  such 
board.  It  should  have  jurisdiction  over  all  classes  of 
children  brought  before  the  courts  with  a  view  to  re- 
straint or  correction.  The  local  committee  should 
consist  of  persons  residing  in  different  parts  of  the 
county,  who  would  look  after  the  delinquent  children 
that  had  been  brought  under  state  supervision,  and  re- 
port respecting  them,  from  time  to  time,  to  the  county 
agent,  who  should  likewise  report  to  the  state  board 
through  the  state  agent. 

The  function  and  authority  of  the  state  agent, 
as  contemplated  in  Mr.  Letchworth's  plan, 
would  be  substantially  those  of  the  Massachu- 
setts state  agent,  already  outlined,  and  he  would 
have  the  proposed  state  and  county  boards  and 
the  county  agents  to  assist  and  support  him  in 
his  work. 

For  the  disciplining  of  juvenile  delinquency, 
in  its  minor  exhibitions,  when  punitive  disci- 
pline is  found  necessary,  Mr.  Letchworth  fa- 
vored a  method  that  he  found  practised  by  the 
School  Board  of  Liverpool,  England,  in  the 
treatment  of  obstinate  cases  of  truancy  from 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE   231 

school.  Boys  who  will  not  attend  school  are 
sent  to  a  house  of  detention  a  few  miles  outside 
of  the  city.  For  terms  of  from  five  to  not  more 
than  thirty  days  they  are  kept  there,  — 

under  a  solitary  system,  and  subjected  to  the  severest 
training  compatible  with  their  years  and  the  preserva- 
tion of  their  health.  Food  is  taken  to  their  rooms. 
They  are  marched  in  single  file  to  the  shops,  where 
they  work  in  small  squads.  No  recreation  except  out- 
side calisthenics  is  permitted.  The  rules  forbid  con- 
versation or  any  kind  of  intercourse  between  the  boys. 
This  punishment  having  been  administered  once,  it  is 
rarely  found  necessary  to  inflict  it  again.  ...  In  this 
brief  but  sharp  and  severe  punishment  there  is  no  last- 
ing stigma  upon  the  character  nor  injury  to  the  per- 
son, nor  is  there  danger  of  moral  contamination  from 
evil  associates.  Similar  houses  for  the  correction  of  ju- 
venile delinquency  might  be  established  near  our  large 
cities,  and  prove  useful  in  materially  lessening  commit- 
ments to  our  houses  of  refuge  and  reform  schools, 
thus  relieving  them  of  much  of  their  expensively  con- 
ducted work.  .  .  .  In  case  the  conduct  of  a  boy  could 
not  be  corrected  by  the  influence  of  the  county  agent, 
or  by  holding  him  under  suspended  sentence,  or  in 
family  care,  he  might  be  committed  for  a  short  term  to 
a  house  of  detention.  If  one  or  two  repetitions  of  this 
kind  of  punishment  should  not  prove  effectual,  a  longer 
discipline  in  the  reform  school  should  be  tried.   .   .   . 


232     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

The  adoption  of  the  preventive  measures  as  sug- 
gested would  make  it  necessary  to  commit  but  few  to 
the  reform  school ;  and  in  the  plan  proposed  this  in- 
stitution should  be  located  on  a  farm  removed  some 
distance  from  the  city,  and  organized  and  controlled, 
when  practicable,  by  private  benevolence.  It  should 
receive  aid  from  the  state,  city,  or  county,  but  not 
sufficient  to  maintain  it,  so  that  public  sympathy 
would  be  kept  alive  in  the  reformatory  work.  Parents, 
too,  should  be  required  to  contribute,  in  accordance 
with  their  means,  towards  the  support  of  their  child- 
ren in  these  institutions,  in  order  that  they  may  feel 
a  due  share  of  responsibility. 

These  schools  should  be  small,  such  having  proved 
the  most  successful.  They  should  be  examined  by  a 
central  supervising  board,  and  certified  to  as  suitable 
for  the  care  and  training  of  delinquents,  before  being 
permitted  to  receive  inmates,  and  this  examination 
should  be  repeated  and  the  certificate  renewed  each 
year  as  a  condition  to  continuance.  Should  peculiar 
circumstances  make  it  desirable  that  the  institution 
receive  more  than  one  hundred  inmates,  the  cottage 
plan  should  be  adopted.  The  internal  system  of  a  re- 
formatory school  should  be  as  nearly  as  practicable 
that  of  the  family,  with  its  refining  and  elevating  in- 
fluences ;  while  the  awakening  of  the  conscience  and 
the  inculcation  of  religious  principles  should  be  primary 
aims.   .   .   . 

Every  boy  should  be  instructed  in  some  useful  trade 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    233 

or  occupation,  and  his  wishes  consulted  in  selecting 
it.  Trades  should  be  taught  under  the  Russian  sys- 
tem of  technologic  training,  whereby  a  boy,  as 
Mr.  Auchmuty  in  his  trade  school  in  New  York  has 
demonstrated,  may  be  taught  plumbing,  carpentry, 
stone-  and  brick-laying,  plastering,  and  other  useful 
handicrafts,  in  from  three  to  four  months;  and  when 
so  taught,  although  not  having  the  expertness  that 
comes  with  practice,  is  a  better  mechanic  than  if  he 
had  spent  five  years  in  acquiring  a  trade  in  the  old 
way,  because  he  has  learned  the  principles  of  me- 
chanics and  chemistry  that  are  applicable  to  his  trade. 
Such  as  prefer  farming  and  gardening,  so  far  as  season 
and  weather  permit,  should  be  employed  and  instructed 
in  those  pursuits. 

'  It  is  now  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  this 
systematic  plan  of  reformative  treatment,  to  be 
applied  to  those  differing  disposi-  present  ac- 
tions or  ill-trainings  of  the  young  ceptance  of 
which  tend  toward  an  inveterate  per-  ^^^^  ^^^^^ 
versity,  was  worked  out  by  the  most  careful 
student  of  the  subject  in  that  day.  As  a  sys- 
tematic plan,  so  far  as  the  present  writer  has 
knowledge,  it  has  never  been  instituted  and  put 
in  practice  anywhere,  and  perhaps  it  will  never 
be,  though  every  feature  of  the  organization 
recommended  in  it  appears  to  be  soundly  and 


234     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

practically  designed ;  but  the  ideas,  the  experi- 
ments, and  the  experiences  that  were  gathered 
together  and  constructively  combined  in  it  have 
substantially  all  been  brought  widely  into  recog- 
nition and  acceptance  within  these  twenty-five 
years.  The  careful  classification  of  juvenile  mis- 
doings, the  suspension  of  judicial  sentences,  the 
probationing  of  young  transgressors,  the  farm- 
planting  of  reform  schools,  the  cottage  colony, 
the  systematic  industrial  training,  —  these  have 
all  come  now  to  be  requirements  which  an  en- 
lightened community  is  expected  to  meet  in  the 
designing  and  conducting  of  its  reformative  in- 
stitutions. The  last  decade,  especially,  has  pro- 
duced an  extraordinary  ripening  in  the  public 
mind  of  the  scientific  and  rational  as  well  as 
philanthropic  ideas  which  they  represent.  When 
Mr.  Letchworth  assembled  them  in  his  plan  it 
is  not  to  be  supposed  for  a  moment  that  he  drew 
any  of  those  ideas  from  his  own  originating 
mind.  It  was  never  his  way  to  rest  a  recommend- 
ation that  he  offered  to  the  public  on  a  merely 
theoretical  idea.  All  the  problems  in  public 
philanthropy  that  he  dealt  with  were  studied  in 
the  light  of  such  experiments  and  experiences 
as  applied  a  sure  test  to  the  theory  from  which 
they  sprang. 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    235 

His  investigations  to  that  end  were  the  most 
remarkable  part  of  his  work.  No  time,  no  labor, 
no  travel,  no  sacrifice  of  his  personal  ggectual 
comfort  was  too  much  for  him  to  study  of 
give  to  the  searching  out  and  inspect-  P^'o^^^'^s 
ing  of  institutions  and  of  laws  which  had  object 
lessons  of  method  to  offer,  with  conclusive  prov- 
ings  of  result.  He  was  unmatched  among  social 
workers  in  that  effectual  study,  and  therefore 
unmatched  as  a  public  teacher  on  the  vital  sub- 
jects which  he  prepared  himself  to  speak  upon 
with  high  authority.  The  authority  of  his 
opinion  on  these  matters  was  recognized,  be- 
cause the  carefulness  of  the  quest  which  went 
before  the  opinion  was  always  plain.  Hence,  it 
can  safely  be  said  that  the  influence  of  Mr. 
Letchworth,  beyond  any  other  personal  influ- 
ence in  the  last  generation,  has  entered  into  the 
producing  of  a  wholly  different  public  opinion 
at  the  present  day,  touching  the  public  treat- 
ment of  dependent  and  delinquent  children, 
compared  with  that  of  the  time  when  he  began 
his  work  as  a  commissioner  in  the  Board  of 
Charities  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

Three  years  prior  to  his  presentation  of  the 
above  elaborated  plan  of  dealing  with  juvenile 
delinquents,  in  a  paper  prepared,  on  the  invita- 


236     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

tion  of  the  Societe  Generale  de  Protection  pour 
TEnfance  abandonnee  ou  coupable,  forthe  Con- 
Seventeen      gres  International   de  la   Protection 

child-sav-  ^^  I'Enfance,  held  at  Paris  in  June, 
ing  proposi-  '  J         J 

tions  1883,    he   had    submitted    "Seven- 

teen Propositions  relating  to  Child-saving 
Work  "  which  embodied  the  same  principles, 
substantially,  in  an  excellently  condensed  form. 
Later,  in  1888,  these  "Seventeen  Propositions" 
were  laid  before  the  National  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Correction,  at  its  session  in  Buf- 
falo, and  discussed  with  much  approval,  in  de- 
bate on  the  report  of  the  committee  on  the  care 
and  disposal  of  dependent  children.  They  are 
as  follows:  — 

First.  There  should  be  a  proper  classification,  prim- 
arily into  the  following  divisions  :  (a)  Children  thrown 
upon  the  public  for  support  by  misfortune  or  poverty 
of  parents,  {b)  Truants  from  school  subject  to  the 
compulsory  education  laws,  (r)  Children  homeless, 
or  with  bad  associations,  who  are  in  danger  of  falling, 
and  who  need  homelike  care  and  training  rather  than 
reformatory  treatment,  (d)  Incorrigibles,  felons,  those 
experienced  in  crime,  and  the  fallen  needing  reform- 
ation. 

Second.  Provision  should  be  made  for  girls,  except 
the  younger  class,  in  institutions  separate  from  boys. 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    237 

Third.  The  institution  should  be  homelike  in  char- 
acter, and  its  administration  as  nearly  as  possible  that 
of  family  life. 

Fourth.  Small  institutions  on  the  open  or  cottage 
plan  should  be  provided  for  boys,  upon  farms  in  the 
country,  where  agriculture  and  gardening  may  be  com- 
bined with  a  thorough  indoor  and  common-school 
system. 

Fifth.  The  labor  of  children  should,  under  no  cir- 
cumstances, be  hired  to  contractors. 

Sixth.  Government  supervision  should  be  exercised 
over  all  institutions  for  children,  and  frequent  exam- 
inations made  as  to  sanitary  and  other  conditions,  an- 
nual approval  by  the  Government  being  requisite  to 
the  continuance  of  the  work. 

Seventh.  Power  should  be  lodged  in  a  central  au- 
thority to  transfer  inmates  from  one  institution  to 
another,  in  order  to  perfect  and  maintain  classifica- 
tions; also  to  remove  juvenile  offenders  from  institu- 
tions and  place  them  in  family  care  during  good  con- 
duct ;  also  to  remove  from  institutional  care  and  to 
place  permanently  in  homes  all  children  suited  to 
family  life. 

Eighth.  There  should  be  provided  a  governmental 
agency  to  act  in  the  interest  of  juvenile  offenders  when 
on  trial.  The  agency  should  be  vested  with  power, 
with  the  approval  of  the  judge,  to  take  the  delinquent 
into  custody  under  suspended  sentence  and  place  him 
on  probation  in  a  family. 


238     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Ninth.  Disinterested  benevolence  should  control 
and  direct  work  as  far  as  practicable,  the  state  or  local 
Government  contributing,  if  need  be,  but  not  to  an 
extent  sufficient  to  meet  the  whole  expense. 

Tenth.  The  cooperation  of  women  of  elevated 
character  should  be  considered  essential  to  the  attain- 
ment of  the  highest  success. 

Eleventh.  Parents  able  to  do  so  should  be  made  to 
contribute  to  the  support  of  their  children  while  under 
reformatory  treatment. 

Twelfth.  When  debased  parents  have  demonstrated 
their  inability  or  unwillingness  to  support  their  child- 
ren, and  the  latter  in  consequence  have  become  a 
charge  upon  the  public,  the  interest  of  the  child  should 
be  regarded  as  paramount,  and  the  rights  of  the  parent 
should  cease,  the  state  assuming  control. 

Thirteenth.  Children  who  in  their  home  life  had 
been  environed  by  vicious  associations  and  adverse 
influences,  should,  on  their  release  from  institutional 
custody,  be  transplanted  to  new  and,  perhaps,  distant 
homes  with  good  surroundings. 

Fourteenth,  A  study  of  the  child's  character  and  a 
knowledge  of  its  antecedents  should  be  considered  es- 
sential to  successful  work. 

Fifteenth.  The  delinquent  child  should  be  regarded 
as  morally  diseased,  and  a  correct  diagnosis  of  its 
moral  condition  should  be  made  and  carefully  con- 
sidered in  applying  remedies  for  the  cure.  This  hav- 
ing been  done  the  strengthening  of  character  by  awak- 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    239 

cning  hope,  building  up  self-respect,  and  inculcating 
moral  and  religious  principles  will  be  more  easily  ef- 
fected. 

Sixteenth.  In  the  process  of  restoration,  homes  in 
good  families  should  be  made  available  to  the  utmost 
extent  possible. 

Seventeenth.  Technological  training  should  be  given 
in  juvenile  reformatories  where  practicable. 

The  founding  of  an  institution  which  ac- 
corded with  Mr.  Letchworth's  ideas  and  enlisted 
his  hearty  interest  was  undertaken  Burnham 
in  1885  by  a  gentleman,  Mr.  Fred-  Industrial 
erick  J.  Burnham,  who  resided  in 
New  Jersey,  but  who  planted  his  benevolent 
enterprise  in  the  State  of  New  York.  A  valu- 
able estate  of  about  six  hundred  acres,  situated 
near  Canaan  Four  Corners,  Columbia  County, 
New  York,  was  devoted  by  Mr.  Burnham  to 
the  establishment  thereon  of  an  industrial  farm 
for  unruly  and  delinquent  boys.  He  had  not  the 
wealth  necessary  for  endowing  the  institution, 
further  than  with  the  all-important  estate  of 
land,  and  he  struggled  for  years  with  difficulties 
in  securing  sufficient  help  from  others  to  put  it 
on  its  feet.  In  those  years  it  is  evident  that  he 
was  greatly  upheld  by  Mr.  Letchworth's  influ- 
ence,  encouragement,  and  aid.  "  Mrs.    Burn- 


240     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

ham  and  I  look  upon  you  as  the  inspiration 
and  the  guide  of  this  work,"  are  Mr.  Burn- 
ham's  words  in  a  letter  of  1887,  —  the  year 
after  the  Burnham  Industrial  Farm  had  been 
incorporated  by  legislative  act.  "  For  your  con- 
stant and  generous  sympathy  and  kindness  I 
can  scarcely  find  words  to  express  our  gratitude" 
is  the  expression  in  another,  two  years  later. 
How  victorious  the  heroic  struggle  came  to  be 
in  the  end  is  reported  by  the  same  hand  in  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Letchworth  written  November 
14,  1904.  "The  work,"  wrote  Mr.  Burnham, 
"is  now  prospering.  Eighty  boys  have  been 
receiving  care  and  instruction  there  during  the 
past  year,  and  the  results  are  most  encouraging. 
The  news  from  the  boys  who  have  gone  from 
our  institution  to  find  work  and  a  place  in  the 
world  are  very  gratifying.  Most  of  them  are 
doing  well,  and  their  letters  show  a  manly  spirit 
of  self-reliance.  Not  one  has  asked  for  any  help, 
and  all  express  their  affection  for  the  Farm." 
Such  fruit-reports  from  fields  in  which  he  helped 
the  seed-  sowing  were  among  the  rewards  of 
which  Mr.  Letchworth  had  many. 

That  a  juvenile  reformatory  should  be,  sys- 
tematically, an  industrial  training-school,  had  be- 
come a  clear  conviction  in  Mr.  Letchworth's 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    241 

mind  when,  at  the  National  Conference  in 
Louisville,  in  1883,  he  discussed  the  subject  of 
"  Classification  and  Training,"  and  much  of  his 
paper  was  devoted  to  that  view.  By  personal 
visitation  of  reformatories  and  by  correspond- 
ence with  the  people  in  charge  of  them  he 
had  acquainted  himself  with  facts  which  deter- 
mined his  mind  absolutely  on  one  primary  point, 
namely,  in  condemnation  of  the  con-  contract  la- 
tract  system  of  employment  for  the  bor  in  re- 
inmates  of  such  reformatories.  He  °^™^  °"®^ 
had  found  that  New  York  was  in  company 
with  only  three  other  states  in  maintaining  the 
contract  system  ;  while  fifteen  of  her  associates 
in  the  Union  had  discarded  it.  He  had  found 
that  under  the  contract  system  seven  industries 
only  were  carried  on,  while  twenty-two  were 
proved  to  be  practicable  in  the  institutions 
which  did  not  hire  their  boys  and  girls  to  con- 
tractors. He  had  found  that  "under  the  free 
labor  system  a  full  trade  is  frequently  if  not 
generally  taught,  and  the  boys  become  expert 
workmen  in  their  particular  line,  while  under 
the  contract  system  no  such  opportunity  is  af- 
forded, and  but  one  operation  or  process  is  in- 
culcated." He  had  found  that  "  the  contract 
system  is  peculiar  to  America";   he  could  not 


242     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

find  it  existing  in  Europe,  —  "in  any  juvenile 
reformatory  either  on  the  Continent  or  in  the 
United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ire- 
land." 

When  abroad,  "on  the  Continent,"  he  wrote, 
"  I  was  particularly  struck  with  the  thorough- 
ness of  the  instruction  and  the  skill  attained  by 
the  pupils  in  every  department.  In  summer 
the  principal  occupations  are  farming  and  gar- 
dening, and  such  other  work  as  keeps  the  chil- 
dren out  of  doors  and  tends  to  make  them 
strong  and  robust;  while  the  inclement  weather 
and  winter  months  are  selected  for  such  indus- 
trial and  intellectual  education  as  may  be  af- 
forded indoors.  ...  At  the  Rauhe  Haus,  near 
Hamburg,  established  by  Immanuel  Wichern 
of  revered  memory,  the  following  trades  were 
being  carried  on  :  blacksmithing,  carpentering, 
tailoring,  shoemaking,  printing,  wagonmaking, 
gardening,  etc."  At  the  Netherlands  Mettray 
and  the  French  Mettray,  near  Tours,  the  in- 
dustries taught  and  conducted  were  much  the 
same. 

The  conclusive  objections  to  the  contract 
labor  system  in  reformatory  institutions  were 
summed  up  by  Mr.  Letchworth  in  a  few  words, 
as  follows :  — 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    243 

It  subordinates  the  reformation  and  improvement 
of  the  child  to  the  interest  of  the  contractor;  intro- 
duces a  foreign  element  into  the  institution,  in  the 
person  of  the  contractors'  employes,  who  have  no 
sympathy  with  the  cause  of  reform,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, exercise  a  vicious  influence. 

It  also  interferes  with  opportunities  for  intellectual 
instruction  and  recreation ;  imposes  long  hours  of 
work,  and  makes  the  boy  believe  that  he  is  part  of  a 
scheme  for  making  money  for  the  institution.  He 
works  grudgingly,  and  is  encouraged  to  steal  and  mis- 
represent his  labor  in  order  to  satisfy  demands  upon 
him. 

The  system  is  at  fault  as  an  industrial  education, 
inasmuch  as  by  its  plan  of  teaching  but  one  process 
in  the  operation,  the  boy  does  not  learn  a  complete 
trade. 

Already,  in  the  previous  year,  with  the  coop- 
eration of  Senator  Titus,  representing  the  Buf- 
falo district  in  the  State  Senate,  Mr.  a  winning 
Letchworth  had  opened  attack  on  the  figlit 
contract  system  of  labor  in  reformatory  or  cor- 
rectional institutions.  Senator  Titus  had  intro- 
duced and  given  earnest  support  to  a  bill  which 
would  make  it  unlawful  "  to  contract,  hire,  or 
let  by  the  day,  week,  or  month,  or  any  longer 
period,  the  services  or  labor  of  any  child  or 
children  under  sixteen  years  of  age  "  ;  and  Mr. 


244     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Letchworth,  in  March,  1882,  addressed  an  argu- 
ment to  the  senate  committee  having  charge  of 
the  bill,  bringing  a  great  array  of  testimony  from 
officials  in  other  states  which  trained  their  delin- 
quent children  to  useful  work,  and  did  not  put 
them  to  labor  for  hire.  "  I  had  no  idea  that  such 
a  thing  was  done  anywhere,"  wrote  one  secre- 
tary of  a  Western  state  board  of  charities  and 
reform.  But  the  New  York  Legislature  was  not 
easily  to  be  moved  by  mere  argument  and  testi- 
mony on  a  question  of  reform,  and  the  bill  died 
in  its  hands. 

Mr.  Letchworth  had  become  accustomed  to 
pleading  again  and  again  in  vain,  at  Albany,  for 
such  betterments  of  method  in  public  benev- 
olence, and  accustomed  likewise  to  winning  his 
plea  in  the  end.  Next  year,  with  Senator  Titus, 
he  returned  to  the  attack;  and  this  time  he 
brought  communications  from  "all  the  res- 
ident officers  in  charge  of  juvenile  reformatory 
institutions  throughout  the  United  States," 
representing  thirty-five  institutions,  in  twenty- 
seven  of  which  the  labor  was  conducted  on  free 
lines.  Still  the  influences  in  opposition  were 
strong  enough  to  smother  the  proposed  reform. 
But  in  the  third  year  of  the  campaign  against 
contract  labor,  which  Commissioner  Letchworth 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    245 

reopened  with  unshaken  faith,  pubhc  opinion 
appears  to  have  voiced  itself,  in  a  tone  which 
Albany  hears  and  obeys,  and  the  desired  law 
was  enacted  on  the  fourth  of  June,  1884. 

Having  secured  the  expulsion  of  contract  la- 
bor from  juvenile  reformative  institutions,  Mr. 
Letchworth  turned  his  exertions  at  industrial 
once  towards  giving  the  best  attain-  training 
able  quality  to  the  industrial  training  under- 
taken in  its  place.  He  had  already  been  ques- 
tioning experience  in  the  matter,  wherever  it 
seemed  instructive,  and  had  learned  that  there 
came  to  the  Centennial  Exposition  at  Philadel- 
phia, in  1876,  an  exhibit  from  Russia  of  methods 
in  teaching  mechanic  arts  which  alert  minds  in 
Massachusetts  and  elsewhere  had  caught  sug- 
gestions from  and  made  practical  trials  of, 
with  remarkable  satisfaction.  President  John 
D.  Runkle,  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology,  had  brought  it  into  operation  in 
the  Mechanic  Art  School  connected  with  that 
technical  university.  There  our  State  Com- 
missioner went,  to  make  a  thorough  study  of 
the  system,  procuring  photographs,  models  used 
in  giving  lessons,  and  descriptions  of  whole 
courses  of  the  lessons  given,  in  their  serial  order, 
disclosing  the  end  of  an  intelligent  workman- 


246     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

ship  to  which  they  were  pursued.  At  the  same 
time  he  studied  the  somewhat  similar  methods, 
having  similar  aims,  which  Mr.  Auchmuty,  a 
wealthy  architect  of  New  York  City,  had  intro- 
duced in  a  school  which  he  founded  for  the 
education  of  artisans  in  the  principles  that  under- 
lie their  several  trades. 

From  other  sources  of  practical  experience 
he  gathered  further  illustrations,  of  the  great 
and  important  educational  results  that  are  ob- 
tainable from  an  industrial  training  conducted 
on  such  lines  as  seemed  to  be  worked  out  most 
perfectly  in  the  system  known  as  the  Russian 
technologic.  "  Under  this  system,"  as  he  con- 
vinced himself,  "  not  only  does  the  boy  learn 
a  trade,  but  he  learns  it  quickly ;  at  the  same 
time  he  is  taught,  by  successive  and  natural 
stages,  scientific  principles  underlying  all  trades, 
so  that  when  he  leaves  school,  whether  he  fol- 
lows a  trade  in  which  he  has  been  instructed  or 
not,  he  can  adapt  himself  to  other  pursuits,  in 
which  the  knowledge  he  has  acquired  may  be 
utilized." 

Thus  prepared  for  well-informed  and  clear 
discussion  of  the  subject,  he  obtained  a  hearing 
on  it  before  the  board  of  managers  of  the  West- 
ern  House   of  Refuge,  at  Rochester,  on   the 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    247 

26th    of  February,   1884.   The    facts    and    the 

exhibits    he    submitted    were    convincing,  and 

in  the   following  month    the   board 

°  Transform- 

adopted  the  report  or  a  special  com-  ing   the 

mittee  to  whom  the  question  had  been  Western 

r  1  J        I  11        House  of 

referred    and    who    recommended  a  j^  , 

memorial  to  the  legislature,  asking 
for  an  appropriation  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars, 
to  cover  the  cost  of  tools,  fixtures,  and  instruc- 
tors for  one  hundred  boys.  The  legislature 
proved  gracious,  and  made  the  appropriation, 
but  the  Governor  found  reasons  for  disapprov- 
ing it  and  striking  it  out.  This,  however,  meant 
no  more  than  delay;  it  was  not  defeat.  The 
needed  appropriation  was  obtained  a  little  later, 
and  Commissioner  Letchworth  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  seeing  the  Western  House  of  Refuge 
changed  in  name  to  the  State  Industrial  School, 
in  1886,  and  changed  in  character,  correspond- 
ingly, in  the  next  year,  by  the  installation  of  a 
fully  worthy  and  scientific  system  of  industrial 
education.  The  shops  then  established  were 
for  carpentry,  lathe  and  pattern  work,  forging 
and  foundry  work. 

In  February  of  this  important  year  the  build- 
ing occupied  by  girls  was  burned,  and  Mr, 
Letchworth  became  the  leader  of  strenuous  ef- 


248     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

forts  to  improve  the  opportunity  thus  afforded 
for  establishing  the  girls  in  a  different  institu- 
tion, entirely  apart.  In  a  long  letter  addressed 
to  the  speaker  of  the  assembly  he  pleaded,  not 
merely  for  a  separation  of  sexes  in  the  measure, 
but  for  the  creation  of  a  reformatory  which 
should  not  be  a  prison,  —  for  a  reformatory  on 
the  farm  and  cottage  or  cottage  and  family  plan, 
which  trial  had  approved  in  Massachusetts, 
Michigan,  Connecticut  and  Ohio.  He  accom- 
panied his  argument,  as  usual,  with  abundant 
supporting  testimony,  and  illuminated  it  with 
plans  and  illustrations  of  the  buildings  and 
grounds  of  the  Michigan  State  Industrial  Home 
for  Girls.  The  argument  was  unanswerable, 
but  it  was  addressed  to  deaf  ears.  Sixteen  years 
later  Mr.  Letchworth  republished  it,  with  the 
remark  that  "the  reasons  given  herewith  for  es- 
tablishing a  separate  girls'  reformatory  .  .  .  are 
as  pertinent  to-day  as  when  they  were  presented 
to  the  speaker  of  the  assembly  in  1887."  The 
question  had  then  arisen  again,  and  half  a  gen- 
eration of  change  in  the  public  and  the  public 
mind  of  New  York  had  brought  so  much  en- 
lightenment that  legislative  consent  to  the  sep- 
arate girls'  reformatory  was  obtained.  In  the 
summer  of  1904  it  was  established  at  Albion, 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    249 

under  the  name  of  the  W^estern  House  of 
Refuge  for  Women.  Three  more  years  carried 
nearly  to  a  full  realization  the  ideals  of  a  re- 
formative institution  for  young  delinquents 
which  Mr.  Letchworth  had  been  pressing  upon 
the  attention  of  his  state  so  long.  In  1907  the 
boys  of  the  grim  old  Western  House  of  Refuge, 
at  Rochester,  were  taken  out  of  their  walled 
prison  and  transferred  to  cottages,  on  a  large 
country  farm,  a  few  miles  beyond  the  city,  in  a 
place  to  which  the  fitting  name  of  Industry  has 
been  given. 

Under  its  new  conditions  the  State  Industrial 
School  exercises  its  proteges  and  pupils  in  gar- 
dening, farming,  and  dairy-work,  extensively, 
as  well  as  in  the  shop  trades  of  blacksmithing, 
carpentry,  tailoring,  printing,  laundrying,  bak- 
ing, painting,  masonry,  etc.  At  last  accounts 
its  inmates  occupied  thirty-one  cottages,  each 
having  accommodations  for  twenty-five  boys. 

It  gladdens  one  to  know  that  Mr.  Letch- 
worth lived  long  enough  to  see  such  perfected 
fruit  as  the  present  State  Industrial  School  in 
one  of  the  fields  of  his  most  earnest  An  impress- 
and  ardent  labor.  It  is  to  be  hoped,  i^®  incident 
too,  that  such  an  incident  as  the  following,  re- 
lated in   the  Rochester  Post-Express  of  April 


250     WILLIAM   PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

13,  191 1,  came   to   his   knowledge   in   his  last 
years:  — 

A  few  years  before  the  school  was  closed  [in  its 
old  place,  at  Rochester,  but  after  the  introduction  of 
the  better  industrial  training  which  Mr.  Letchworth 
had  fairly  forced  upon  it] ,  there  walked  into  the  office 
a  silk-hatted,  frock-coated  man,  who  asked  to  be 
shown  through  the  building.  He  seemed  to  be  familiar 
with  the  halls,  and  finally  stopped  before  a  row  of 
doors  opening  into  the  little  rooms  in  the  boys'  build- 
ing. His  guide  watched  him  closely  and  then  asked, 
"  Which  room  was  it  ? "  The  man  looked  startled, 
and  then  slowly  replied,  "  It  was  that  little  room, 
right  there."  The  inspection  continued  until  they 
came  to  the  blacksmith  rooms,  when  the  man  walked 
to  a  certain  anvil  and,  kneeling  beside  it,  prayed  :  "  I 
thank  Thee,  O  God,  for  giving  to  William  Pryor 
Letchworth  the  vision  of  Thine  understanding  and  of 
the  need  of  Thine  erring  children."  The  man  had 
been  sent  to  the  school  as  a  boy,  and  had  worked  for 
hours  over  the  anvil  at  which  he  had  stopped.  Leav- 
ing the  school  with  an  apprenticeship  served,  he 
readily  secured  employment,  and,  through  the  habits 
of  study  acquired  at  the  school,  soon  mastered  some 
of  the  technical  details  of  ironworking.  Eventually  he 
became  a  large  contractor,  and  is  to-day  a  wealthy 
man.  That  was  just  one  of  the  instances  which  came 
to  the  notice  of  the  officers  of  the  institution,  of  the 
tremendous  factor  for  good  that  this  work  became. 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    251 

In  tracing  the    child-saving   lines   to  which 

Mr.   Letchworth  devoted    his  work  especially, 

during  half  or  more   of  the  years  of  Successive 

his  official  service,  we   have  passed  objects  of 
L  L      I        I        1-  J  1  1       J^r-  Letch- 

by  much   that  he  did  to  other  ends,   north's 

In  1873-75  ^^  ^^^  engrossed,  as  work 
we  have  seen,  quite  entirely  in  his  undertakings 
(i)  to  rescue  homeless  children  from  poorhouses 
and  the  like ;  (2)  to  ascertain  the  sufficiency  of 
hospitality  for  them  in  existing  orphanages; 
(3)  to  stimulate  the  passing  on  of  such  unfor- 
tunates from  orphanages  to  family  homes.  In 
the  next  few  years  his  chief  interest  and  labor 
were  given  to  that  vitally  important  condition 
of  a  successful  reformative  treatment  of  juvenile 
wrongdoers  which  demands  discrimination  be- 
tween the  wayward  and  the  depraved,  and  for- 
bids their  being  mixed,  as  he  found  them  mixed 
in  the  so-called  reformatories  and  houses  of 
refuge  of  the  State  of  New  York.  When  signs 
of  a  hopeful  planting  of  this  fundamental  sug- 
gestion in  the  better  minds  of  the  state  began  to 
appear,  he  opened  his  campaign  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  contract  labor  in  reformative  institutions  ; 
for  the  conversion  of  them  into  industrial  schools, 
imparting  to  their  inmates  the  most  perfect 
knowledge  of  industrial  arts  by  the  most  scien- 


252     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

tific  and  effective  methods  that  have  been  de- 
vised ;  and,  finally,  for  the  demolishing  of  their 
prison  walls,  transferring  them  to  cottages  in 
country  fields.  But,  meantime,  he  had  turned 
frequently  to  other  tasks,  and  these,  with  some 
attending  incidents  of  his  life,  must  now  be  re- 
viewed. 

In  1876  he  accepted  the  presidency  of  an 
association    organized    in    Wyoming    County, 

New  York,  to  undertake  the  build- 
Neighbor-       .  TXT  1  r 
hood  tasks     ing>  at  Warsaw,  the  countyseat,  of  a 

and  home  monument. to  the  soldiers  and  sailors 
*  ®  of  the  war  for  the  Union.  There  is 

evidence  in  his  letter  books  that  he  pulled  the 
stroke  oar,  so  to  speak,  in  this  undertaking,  and 
gave  to  it,  for  many  months,  a  large  measure  of 
his  thought  and  his  time.  It  is  almost  needless 
to  say  that  the  project  was  carried  to  success. 

In  October  of  that  year  he  was  borne  down 
for  a  time  by  a  shock  of  sorrow,  which  came, 
unlocked  for,  in  a  telegram  announcing  his 
mother's  death.  He  was  absent  from  home  at 
the  time,  in  New  York,  as  he  had  been  absent, 
in  Europe,  when  his  father  died.  His  affection 
for  his  parents  had  been  very  warm,  and  it  added 
to  his  grief  that  he  could  not  have  been  with 
either  father  or  mother  in  the  last  hours. 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    253 

The  spring  of  the  next  year  brought  a  glad 
change  into  the  circumstances  of  his  Hfe  at  Glen 
Iris,  by  giving  him  the  companionship  there 
of  his  widowed  eldest  sister,  Mrs.  Crozer. 
Thenceforward  until  her  death  Mrs.  Crozer  was 
the  presiding  genius  of  his  home,  and  his  hap- 
piness in  it  was  made  more  complete. 

When  this  occurred  he  had  just  accepted 
(April,  1877),  from  Governor  Lucius  Robinson, 
a  reappointment  on  the  State  Board  Rgappoint- 
of  Charities  for  the  term  of  eight  ment  on 
years.  Amongthenew  commissioners  State  Boar 
who  now  came  into  the  Board  was  Mrs. 
Josephine  Shaw  Lowell,  of  New  York  City, — 
the  first  woman  to  be  chosen  for  this  important 
service  of  the  state.  Mrs.  Lowell  had  been  active 
in  the  State  Charities  Aid  Association,  and  was 
distinguished  throughout  her  life  for  zeal  and 
efficiency  in  social  service.  She  brought  a  notable 
reinforcement  of  energy  and  sound  judgment 
to  the  Board,  and  Mr.  Letchworth,  who  became 
its  president  that  year,  on  the  death  of  Mr. 
Pruyn,  had  no  counsellor  and  supporter  more 
valued  than  she.  His  official  cares  and  labor 
would,  in  any  event,  have  been  much  increased 
by  his  advancement  to  the  presidency  ;  but  such 
a  consequence  was  doubled  for  him  by  the  dis- 


254     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

position  to  indefatigable  thoroughness  of  per- 
formance and  to  unbelief  in  failure  or  defeat 
which  he  had  carefully  trained  in  himself 

In  the  course  of  this  year,  1877,  he  made  a 
thorough  general  inspection  of  all  the  charities 
Official  "^  ^^^  Eighth  Judicial  District  of  the 

tasks  of  State,  —  the  district  which  he  spe- 
1877-79  cially  represented  in  the  State  Board. 
This  covered  eight  counties  at  the  western  ex- 
tremity of  New  York.  The  institutions  inspected 
and  reported  on  to  the  Board  were  thirty-five 
in  number,  including  poorhouses,  hospitals,  re- 
formatories, asylums,  and  "  homes." 

In  May,  1877,  on  the  request  of  the  state 
comptroller,  the  executive  committee  of  the 
Board  undertook  an  investigation  of  the  manage- 
ment and  affairs  of  the  New  York  State  Institu- 
tion for  the  Blind,  at  Batavia,  and  the  chief 
burden  of  labor  connected  therewith  was  ac- 
cepted by  Commissioner  Letchworth.  After 
twelve  days  with  his  associates  of  the  Committee 
at  Batavia,  given  to  inspections  and  the  examin- 
ation of  witnesses,  he  went  personally  to  Boston, 
Philadelphia,  Columbus,  and  Indianapolis,  to 
visit  other  institutions  for  the  instruction  of  the 
blind,  in  pursuit  of  information  which  the  com- 
mittee desired.   The  result  was  a  highly  impor- 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    255 

rant  report  of  comparative  facts,  touching  the 
managementof  four  of  the  most  highly  esteemed 
schools  for  the  blind.  The  findings  of  the  in- 
vestigation were  not  favorable  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  institution  at  Batavia. 

The  most  arduous  of  Mr.  Letchworth's  la- 
bors in  1878  was  the  preparation  of  a  report 
on  "  Plans  for  Poorhouses,"  made  in  response 
to  a  request  from  the  Board.  He  found,  he 
said,  in  submitting  his  report,  that  "  the  absence 
in  architectural  literature  of  plans  and  descrip- 
tions of  buildings  adapted  to  a  population  so 
mixed  and  characteristic  as  that  of  county  poor- 
houses  "  had  rendered  the  task  assigned  him 
"  more  difficult  and  its  necessity  more  obvious." 
From  an  inspection  of  poorhouses  in  all  of  the 
New  England  States  and  in  a  number  of  West- 
ern States,  as  well  as  in  New  York;  from  a 
careful  examination  of  official  plans  that  had 
originated  in  boards  of  state  charities  and  boards 
of  health,  and  from  the  opinions  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  experts,  he  brought  an  extensive  mass  of 
descriptive  suggestions  as  well  as  illustrative 
designs.  His  own  conclusions  touching  location, 
drainage,  sewerage,  building  material,  founda- 
tions, walls  of  superstructure,  wainscoting,  floors, 
flues,   stairs,  roofs,   heating,   ventilation,  bath- 


256     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

rooms,  sun-exposure,  etc.,  were  clearly  set  forth, 
and  with  them  he  presented  a  sketch  plan  of  the 
arrangement  of  poorhouse  structures  which  his 
own  judgment  approved. 

Another  of  his  tasks  of  this  year  was  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  Steuben  County  Poorhouse, 
consequent  on  the  occurrence  of  a  fire  which 
destroyed  sixteen  lives.  Twice  before  there  had 
been  fatal  fires  at  the  same  institution,  the  first 
in  1 839,  when  an  insane  pauper  was  burned,  the 
second  in  1859,  when  six  lives  were  lost.  De- 
plorable conditions  of  long  standing  were  dis- 
closed by  the  inquiry,  and  responsibility  for 
them  was  traced  quite  plainly  to  the  general 
public  of  the  county,  which  had  given  no  heed 
to  facts  often  set  before  it. 

Within  this  year  the  tireless  Commissioner 
of  the  Eighth  Judicial  District  repeated  his  vis- 
itation of  all  but  one  of  the  charitable  insti- 
tutions in  that  district,  for  the  reason  that 
"numerous  improvements  and  extensions"  had 
been  made  since  his  round  of  twelve  months 
before,  and  he  wished  to  see  the  changed  con- 
ditions and  report  them. 

On  the  dedication  of  the  Soldiers'  and  Sail- 
ors* Home,  at  Bath,  New  York,  January  23, 
1879,  Mr.  Letchworth  was  invited  to  make  the 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    257 

principal  address.  The  president  of  the  board 
of  trustees  of  the  Home,  General  Henry  W. 
Slocum,  introduced  him  with  the  following  re- 
marks :  "  While  we  do  not  admit  that  this  Home 
is,  in  a  strict  sense  of  the  word,  a  charitable  in- 
stitution, we  realize  the  fact  that  it  is  hereafter 
to  be  supported  by  the  state,  and  for  this  reason 
we  have  requested  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
to  visit  us,  to  examine  our  work  and  our  ex- 
penditures. This  Board  is  one  which,  without 
compensation,  is  doing  great  good  in  our  state. 
All  of  its  members  will  at  all  times  be  welcome 
visitors  to  this  Home.  We  want  their  advice 
and  assistance.  I  take  great  pleasure  in  intro- 
ducing to  you  Mr.  Letchworth,  the  president 
of  the  State  Board  of  Charities." 

In  Mr.  Letchworth's  address  there  was  no 
taint  of  patriotic  bombast.  It  was  full  of  prac- 
tical purpose  throughout,  especially  describing 
the  extent  to  which  infirm  and  disabled  veterans 
of  the  War  for  the  Union  were  to  be  found  in 
the  poorhouses  of  the  state,  and  appealing  for 
exertions  to  remove  them  from  that  tainted 
association  into  the  comradeship  of  the  Sol- 
diers' Home.  At  the  same  time  he  improved 
the  opportunity  for  pleading  the  cause  of  the 
chronic  insane  in  our  poorhouses,  —  a  barbar- 


258     WILLIAiM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

ously  wronged  and  suffering  class,  whose  case 
was  now  beginning  to  appeal  to  him  as  strongly 
as  that  of  the  misused  "  children  of  the  state  " 
had  done. 

In  this  year,  1879,  Commissioner  Letchworth 
took  part  in  two  investigations,  one  concern- 
ing the  insane  asylum  of  the  Onondaga  County 
Poorhouse,  in  which  the  committee  of  the  State 
Board  acted  with  a  committee  of  the  County 
Board  of  Supervisors.  The  revelations  in  this, 
though  less  sickening  than  many  which  came 
to  light  later,  were  well  calculated  to  deepen 
the  feelings  that  were  spurring  our  reformer  to 
make  the  bettering  of  treatment  for  the  insane 
the  supreme  object  of  endeavor  for  the  remain- 
der of  his  life. 

The  second  investigation  of  the  year,  brought 
about  by  complaints  and  charges  against  the 
Society  for  the  Reformation  of  Juvenile  Delin- 
quents, Randall's  Island,  New  York,  was  con- 
ducted daily,  at  Randall's  Island,  on  every 
secular  day,  from  October  16  until  and  includ- 
ing December  11.  The  investigating  committee 
was  composed  of  Mr.  Letchworth,  as  president, 
and  Commissioners  Donnelly  and  Van  Ant- 
werp,—  the  latter  from  Albany  and  the  former 
from  New  York.    The  inquiry  was  searching; 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    259 

the  findings  were  unequivocal.  Some  of  the 
managers  could  be  lauded  for  devotion  to  their 
duty;  but  not  more  than  half  of  the  board  of 
thirty  were  active  in  the  work,  and  less  than 
half  attended  the  meetings  of  the  board.  The 
superintendent  had  the  confidence  of  the  man- 
agers ;  but  testimony  taken  went  to  show  that 
many  things  occurred  in  the  House  of  which  no 
record  or  report  was  ever  made.  The  investigat- 
ors made  numerous  recommendations,  the  most 
important  being  these  :  That  the  charter  of  the 
Society  "be  so  amended  as  to  confine  its  juris- 
diction exclusively  to  the  class  of  criminal  com- 
mitments for  the  higher  grade  of  crimes  and  to 
children  over  twelve  and  under  sixteen  years  of 
age ;  that  the  work  of  reforming  delinquent 
girls  be  carried  on  separately  and  in  a  distant 
locality.  That  such  an  arrangement  of  buildings 
and  grounds  be  effected  as  will  insure  as  thor- 
ough a  classification  of  the  inmates  as  is  possi- 
ble, according  to  their  moral  condition." 

In   November,  1879,  Commissioner  Letch- 
worth,  as  president  of  the  State  Board   _      „   , 
/  New  York 

of  Charities,  headed  the  representa-  at  issue 
tion  of  that  Board  and  of  other  New  withMassa- 

cllUS6ttS 

York  state  and  city  officials,  in  a  con- 
ference of  grave  importance  with  corresponding 


26o     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

officials  of  Massachusetts,  on  the  subject  of  the 
transfer  of  paupers  from  the  latter  to  the  former 
state.  A  cause  of  grievance  in  this  arose  from  the 
fact  that  immigrants  landed  at  New  York  City, 
but  passing  on  into  Massachusetts,  and  there 
becoming  subjects  of  charity,  were  dealt  with  as 
belonging  to  New  York,  and  sent  back  accord- 
ingly. Moreover,  as  the  New  York  State  Board 
complianed,  "  while  in  New  York  State  paupers 
are  removed  only  with  their  consent,  and  then 
to  their  places  of  destination,  in  Massachusetts 
no  option  is  extended  to  them,  but  they  are 
imperatively  thrust  out  of  her  borders  to  burden 
this  or  other  states."  Controversy  over  these 
practices  had  been  going  on  for  two  years,  when 
the  Massachusetts  Commissioners  of  Health, 
Lunacy,  and  Charity  accepted  an  invitation  from 
the  New  York  State  Board  of  Charities  to  meet 
the  latter  in  New  York  City  for  a  thorough  dis- 
cussion of  the  questions  involved.  No  definite 
agreements  were  reached  at  the  conference;  but 
the  Massachusetts  representatives,  at  the  end 
of  a  spirited  interchange  of  views,  expressed  the 
wish  for  another  meeting  in  their  own  state,  and 
their  hope  that  it  would  lead  ultimately  to  an 
amicable  adjustment  of  differences. 

Later   national   legislation,   which    began   in 


CHILD-SAVING:  REFORMATIVE    261 

1882,  aiming  to  bar  paupers  and  defective  per- 
sons from  admission  to  the  country,  has  gone 
far,  no  doubt,  towards  extinguishing  the  ques- 
tion over  which  New  York  and  Massachusetts 
were  in  dispute  thirty  years  ago.  The  matter 
was  one  which  had  been  exercising  the  mind  of 
Mr.  Letchworth  ever  since  he  began  to  acquaint 
himself  with  the  conditions  under  which  pauper- 
ism exists  in  the  United  States.  At  the  National 
Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction,  held  in 
1 875,  at  Detroit,  he  took  part  in  the  discussion  of 
a  paper  on  "  I  mmigration,"  read  by  M r.  Hamilton 
Andrews  Hill,  of  Boston,  and  argued  strongly 
against  an  indiscriminate  hospitality  to  every 
kind  of  stranger  from  other  countries  who  might 
seek  or  be  sent  to  the  open  gates  of  our  land. 
"Without  care,"  he  said,  "we  might  be  led  to 
overlook  the  need  of  enforcing  certain  necessary 
measures  of  state  policy";  his  personal  observ- 
ation in  various  poorhouses  having  convinced 
him  that  "an  organized  system  exists  in  other 
countries  for  shipping  hopelessly  dependent  per- 
sons to  this  country."  "Instead  of  relaxation 
in  law,  more  stringent  protective  laws  are  de- 
manded." In  1879  he  proposed  resolutions 
which  were  adopted  by  the  State  Board  of 
Charities,   asking    Congress    for   legislation   to 


262     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

this  end ;   and   he  suggested  similar  action  to 
the  International  Prison  Congress  that  year. 

The  New  York-Massachusetts  Conference, 
in  which  Dr.  Martin  B.  Anderson,  President 
of  Rochester  University,  bore  a  prominent  part, 
was  the  last  important  occasion  on  which  Mr. 
Letchworth  was  associated  officially  with  that 
greatly  esteemed  colleague,  between  whom  and 
himself  the  sympathies  exercised  in  their  com- 
mon work  were  especially  close.  In  April,  1 880, 
Dr.  Anderson  was  compelled,  by  the  weight  of 
his  duties  at  the  university,  to  resign  from  the 
State  Board.  In  doing  so  he  wrote  to  Commis- 
sioner Letchworth  :  "  I  should  have  resigned 
three  years  ago,  had  it  not  been  for  your  earnest 
desire  that  I  should  remain  longer  on  the  Board. 
.  .  .  You  are  kind  enough  to  speak  of  assist- 
ance that  I  may  have  rendered  you  in  the  dis- 
charge of  your  duties  as  president  of  the  Board. 
Permit  me  to  say  that  whenever  I  can  aid  you 
in  any  way  in  your  work  in  the  future  you  may 
command  me  to  the  extent  of  my  strength  and 
ability.  My  associations  with  you  have  been 
among  the  pleasantest  of  my  life,  and  I  beg  you 
always  to  consider  me  as  a  near  personal  friend." 


CHAPTER    VII 

WORK.    FOR    THE    INSANE 

A  HORRIBLE  condition  of  the  chronic  insane  in 
the  poorhouses  of  the  State  of  New  York  was 
reported  to  the  legislature  in  1844,  by  Miss 
Dorothea  L.  Dix ;  then  again  in  1858  by  a 
committee  of  the  Senate ;  and  still  again,  in 
1865,  by  Dr.  Willard,  Secretary  of  the  State 
Medical  Society,  after  a  personal  investigation 
by  him  ;  and  it  was  not  until  this  last-mentioned 
revelation  that  anything  was  done  to  reform  the 
shocking  barbarity.  The  legislature  was  moved 
then  to  action  which  resulted  in  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Willard  Asylum,  at  Ovid,  for  the 
reception  of  the  pauper  chronic  insane,  pre- 
viously caged  in  the  poorhouses  like  wild  beasts. 
The  Willard  Asylum  was  not  ready,  however, 
until  1869,  and  the  State  Board  of  Charities, 
created  in  1867,  and  making  its  first  examin- 
ation of  the  poorhouses  in  1868,  found  the 
chronic  insane  "in  the  same  wretched  and  de- 
plorable condition  as  had  been  described  in  the 
several  reports  before."  According  to  the  report 


264     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

of  the  Board,  "the  number  of  such  insane  then 
in  these  institutions  was  1528.  Of  these,  213 
were  found  chained  or  confined  in  cells.  It  was 
learned  that  nearly  all  of  these  had  been  for 
long  periods  thus  chained  or  confined.  A  large 
proportion  were  violent  and  destructive,  untidy 
and  filthy  in  their  habits  and  persons,  and  sev- 
eral were  observed  entirely  nude." 

It  became  apparent  very  early  that  the  accom- 
modations of  the  Willard  Asylum  would  not 
suffice  for  the  numbers  required  by  the  law  to 
be  removed,  and  in  1871  the  legislature  passed 
an  act  authorizing  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
to  grant  exemptions  from  the  law  to  counties 
whose  buildings,  etc.,  were  found  fit  and  ade- 
quate for  the  retention  of  their  chronic  insane. 
This  became  a  source  of  much  troublesome 
hindrance  to  the  undertaking  of  reform. 

Such  were  the  conditions  at  which  the  State 
of  New  York  had  arrived  in  the  care  of  its 
chronic  insane  when  Mr.  Letchworth  became  a 
member  of  its  Board  of  Charities.  He  made 
acquaintance  with  them  almost  as  early  as  with 
those  conditions  in  the  poorhouses  which  were 
educating  children  to  pauperism  and  vagrancy 
and  criminality,  and  they  summoned  him  to 
strive  against  them  by  as  urgent  a  call ;  but  his 


to 

u 

^^ 

w 
<-] 

H 
< 

o 
o 

r 
U 

o 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  265 

enlistment  in  the  cause  of  the  children  had  come 
first,  and  it  engrossed  his  time  and  effort  during 
the  early  years  of  his  service  on  the  State  Board. 
Even  from  the  first  of  those  years,  however, 
he  began  the  championship  of  the  insane  in 
the  part  of  his  special  district  of  the  state 
which  came  most  immediately  under  Beginning 
his  eye.  In  October,  1873,  he  re-  investiga- 
ported  to  the  State  Board  the  results  *'°°^ 
of  an  investigation  that  he  had  made  of  the  in- 
sane department  of  the  Erie  County  Almshouse, 
showing  its  inmates  to  be  kept  in  an  intolerable 
state.  They  numbered  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
eight,  and  so  crowded  the  quarters  provided  for 
them  that  "  two  patients  in  most  instances,  and 
sometimes  three,"  were  "compelled  to  occupy  a 
small  cell  measuring  but  five  feet  four  inches 
by  seven  feet  two  inches."  Thus  "  the  unfortu- 
nates were  literally  packed  into  the  asylum. 
The  cells  were,  of  course,  originally  constructed 
for  one  inmate,  though  even  then  they  fell  far 
short  of  sanitary  requirements.  They  had  each 
but  one  bedstead,  and  the  additional  occupants 
had  to  be  provided  for  by  spreads  on  the  floor, 
which  filled  up  almost  all  the  remaining  space 
in  the  cell."  There  was  no  provision  for  hos- 
pital wards.    The  water  supply  was  inadequate. 


266     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

the  main  supply  being  brought  in  tubs  from 
wells  in  the  pauper  department.  There  were  no 
bathing  facilities. 

By  presenting  the  facts  to  the  County  Board 
of  Supervisors  (who  had  been  grossly  neglectful 
of  duty  if  they  had  not  known  them  before,  and 
heartless  if  they  had  known  them),  Commis- 
sioner Letchworth  obtained  action  from  that 
body  which  provided  means  for  some  remedial 
measures;  but  the  committee  charged  with  the 
undertaking  soon  found  that  expenditure  on  the 
existing  buildings  would  be  wasted,  and  the  sit- 
uation remained  unchanged  for  another  year. 
Meantime  the  state  commissioner  was  con- 
sulted in  the  preparation  of  plans  for  a  new  build- 
ing, which  relieved  and  improved  the  situation 
considerably,  but  not  to  the  extent  that  right 
feelings  of  humanity  required.  Official  action  in 
the  county  halted  again  until  it  was  pushed,  in 
1876,  to  the  erection  of  a  wing,  which  the  origi- 
nal building  had  contemplated,  and  to  the  pro- 
mise of  a  second  wing,  for  which  there  was  still 
an  urgent  need.  The  promise  was  tardily  ful- 
filled, after  more  official  expostulation,  in  1879. 
Two  years  later,  in  September,  1881,  when 
Commissioner  Letchworth  made  another  in- 
spection of  the  poorhouse,  and   especially  its 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  267 

insane  department,  he  found  generally  good 
conditions,  but  a  serious  inadequacy  in  the  water 
supply,  with  defects  in  the  sewerage,  and  was 
compelled  to  say  :  "  It  is  a  matter  for  regret 
that  expenditures  have  been  made  in  connection 
with  this  asylum  not  in  accordance  with  the 
original  plan,  approved  by  the  State  Board  of 
Charities,  nor  in  keeping  with  true  economy. 
.  .  .  The  consequence  is  that  the  plan  of  the 
asylum  is  incomplete  and  one  of  its  primary 
aims  [the  effective  separation  of  the  sexes]  de- 
feated." 

Knowing  that  conditions  even  worse  than 
those  he  dealt  with  in  Erie  County  were  exist- 
ing in  other  parts  of  the  state,  he  was  manifestly 
distressed  by  his  inability  during  this  period  to 
expose  them  in  a  more  general  way.  In  January, 
1876,  he  addressed  an  earnest  letter  to  Miss 
Dix,  imploring  her  to  come  again,  if  it  might 
be  possible,  into  the  field  of  her  noble  exertions 
more  than  thirty  years  before,  and  strive  to 
rouse  the  conscience  of  the  country  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  still  barbarous  treatment  of  the  in- 
sane. 

In  1878  he  accepted  the  chairmanship  of  a 
committee  appointed  by  the  State  Board  of 
Charities  to  investigate,  conjointly  with  a  com- 


268     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

mittee  appointed  by  the  Onondaga  County 
Board  of  Supervisors,  the  condition  and  man- 
agement of  the  county  insane  asylum  in  that 
county,  concerning  which  serious  complaints 
had  been  made.  The  investigation,  in  December, 
1878,  produced  a  report  in  which  both  com- 
mittees agreed,  condemning  the  asylum  build- 
ings entirely  ;  finding  the  heating  inadequate, 
the  lighting  imperfect,  the  sewerage  defective, 
the  water  supply  insufficient,  the  bedding  and 
the  clothing  of  the  inmates  insufficient  for  win- 
ter, the  use  of  dungeons  unjustifiable,  the  num- 
ber of  attendants  too  small,  and,  finally,  "that 
the  opinion  entertained  and  practised  by  the 
chief  attendant  and  others,  that  it  was  proper  to 
inflict  punishment  upon  the  insane  by  striking 
them  with  a  strap,  showering  them,  —  that  is, 
dashing  water  in  their  faces  while  they  are  held 
on  the  floor,  —  depriving  them  of  food  for  a 
time,  and  confining  them  in  dungeons,  was 
founded  in  the  grossest  ignorance  and  was  in- 
human in  the  extreme."  Before  this  report 
reached  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  in  the 
following  March,  the  Onondaga  County  au- 
thorities had  introduced  steam-heating  through- 
out its  poorhouse  and  insane  asylum,  demol- 
ished the  dungeons  in   the  latter,  put  in  new 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  269 

water-closets,  as  well  as  bathing  conveniences, 
appointed  a  resident  physician,  and  discharged 
all  of  the  old  force  of  attendants. 

What  has  now  been  related  shows  substan- 
tially all  that  Mr.  Letchworth,  before  his  in- 
vestigating tour  of  European  countries  in  1880, 
had  been  able  to  make  of  effort  toward  sup- 
pressing the  heartlessness  and  instructing  the 
ignorance  which  went,  still,  into  so  much  of  the 
treatment  of  the  insane  in  our  country,  especially 
in  the  county  institutions  provided  for  them. 
The  investigations  of  that  tour,  as  we  have  seen, 
added  largely  to  his  preparation  for  labors  in 
this  line,  as  they  did  likewise  to  his  preparation 
for  endeavors  to  improve  the  aims  and  the  work- 
ing of  our  institutions  for  child  reform.  He  came 
back  from  his  travels,  we  may  assume,  with  a 
well-determined  intention  to  divide  himself  be- 
tween these  two  missions,  so  far  as  official  duty 
permitted  him  to  specialize  his  work.  The  ideals 
of  reformative  training  for  the  young  which  he 
strove  to  introduce  have  been  indicated  in  the 
previous  chapter.  The  ideals  of  treatment  due 
to  demented  human  beings,  which  actuated  his 
work  in  the  interest  of  those  most  pitiable  of 
the  afflicted,  were  elaborately  set  forth  in  the 
final  chapter  of  his  subsequently  published  work 


270     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

on  "The  Insane  in  Foreign  Countries."  Pend- 
ing the  publication  of  that  work,  he  indicated 
them  briefly  in  his  address  as  president  of  the 
National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction, 
at  the  meeting  in  St.  Louis,  October,  1884. 

Alluding  then  to  his  "recent  personal  ex- 
amination of  a  large  number  of  European  hos- 
Statement  pi^^^s  for  the  insane,"  and  stating  his 
of  aims  conclusion   "  that   there  were   many 

and  ideals  features  in  transatlantic  systems 
superior  to  ours,"  which  it  gladdened  him  to  see 
that  "we  are  rapidly  adopting,"  —  expressing 
at  the  same  time  his  belief  that  "the  way  is 
open  for  European  alienists  to  learn  something 
from  us,"  —  he  touched  on  what  had  been  done 
in  late  years  to  better  the  treatment  of  insanity, 
and  proceeded  to  say  :  — 

I  think  we  are  now  entering  upon  an  era  of  still 
broader  beneficence,  and  that  the  improvement  to 
come  will  embrace  the  highest  aims  of  philanthropy 
and  the  soundest  principles  of  science, —  a  time  when 
our  laws  respecting  committal  and  discharge  will  be 
so  perfected  that  violations  of  personal  liberty  will  not 
occur;  when  the  persons  and  property  of  the  men- 
tally diseased  shall  be  fully  protected;  when  the  doors 
of  an  asylum  shall  open  outward  as  freely  as  inward ; 
when  there  will  be  no  more  reluctance  to  place  those 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  271 

suffering  from  mental  ailments  in  a  hospital  for  the 
insane  than  in  any  other;  when  popular  views  respect- 
ing these  institutions  will  not  stand  in  the  way  of 
early  treatment  and  consequently  more  hopeful  cure  ; 
when  the  gloomy  walls,  the  iron  gratings,  and  prison- 
like appearance  now  characteristic  of  many  of  these 
institutions  will  disappear,  and  simpler,  homelike  struc- 
tures, with  a  more  natural  life  and  greater  freedom 
for  the  patient,  with  healthful  outdoor  employment 
and  recreation  diversified  with  indoor  occupation  and 
simple  entertainment,  will  take  their  place;  when  the 
truth  that  "the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire"  will  be 
recognized,  and  patients  performing  labor  shall  feel 
that  they  have  some  recompense,  however  trifling,  for 
their  services ;  when  in  every  hospital  shall  be  trained 
nurses  and  women  physicians  for  female  patients ; 
when  the  moral  element  shall  be  coequal  with  the 
medical  element  in  treatment;  when  gentleness  shall 
take  the  place  of  force,  and  the  principle  set  forth  by 
the  founders  of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  that  the 
insane  "should  be  regarded  as  men  and  brethren," 
shall  become  universal;  and,  finally,  a  still  more 
blessed  time,  when  there  shall  prevail  throughout  so- 
ciety an  intelligent  idea  as  to  the  causes  which  pro- 
duce insanity,  and  prevention  shall  largely  obviate  the 
necessity  of  cure. 

To  contribute  what  he  could  to  the  stirring 
of  a  desire  in  the  public  mind  for  these  reforms, 


272     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

by  revelations  of  the  stress  of  need  for  them 
and  by  demonstrations  of  their  practicabiHty, 
was  now  the  main  business  of  his  life  for  some- 
thing more  than  ten  years.  On  the  educational 
side  of  these  endeavors  his  most  important  and 
,  effective  undertaking  was  the  prepar- 
European  ation  of  his  notable  work  on  "The 
institutions  Insane  in  Foreign  Countries,"  which 
he  began  soon  after  his  return  from  abroad  ;  but 
a  number  of  years  passed  before  it  went  to  print. 
Investigations  to  expose  the  existing  sufferings 
of  the  insane  had  more  immediate  urgency,  and 
required  much  time.  Labors  for  the  promotion 
of  wiser  systems  of  reformative  training  for  de- 
linquent children  consumed  more ;  and  when 
the  general  duties  of  his  laborious  office  and 
his  extensive  correspondence  had  had  their  due 
of  attention,  not  much  of  time  or  strength  re- 
mained for  such  painstaking  literary  work  as 
Mr.  Letchworth's  had  to  be. 

He  lost  no  time  in  setting  on  foot  the  in- 
vestigations that  would  point  and  give  motive 
to  everything  else  that  could  be  done- 
tion  of  poor-  Three  months  after  his  arrival  home 
house  care  he  had  obtained  from  the  State  Board 
of  the  insane  ^^  Charities  (at  its  meeting  in  May, 
i88i)theappointmentofhimself,  with  two  other 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  273 

commissioners  of  the  Board,  Mr.  Devereaux  and 
Miss  Carpenter,  as  a  committee  to  visit  and 
report  on  the  condition  of  the  insane  depart- 
ment of  poorhouses  in  counties  exempted  by 
the  Board,  under  the  Act  of  1871,  from  the 
statute  requiring  the  chronic  insane  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  Willard  Asylum.  Commissioner 
Devereaux  was  unable  to  serve,  and  the  invest- 
igation was  made  by  Commissioners  Letchworth 
and  Carpenter.  The  institutions  visited  were  in 
sixteen  counties,  and  the  conditions  found  in 
them  were  fully  detailed.  Nothing  like  the  bar- 
barities so  common  before  1869  were  found; 
but  the  provision  of  apparatus  for  applying 
physical  restraint  to  the  patients  (such  as  shack- 
les, handcuffs,  restraining  chairs,  "muffs"  and 
"  camisoles")  was  regarded  by  the  committee  as 
suspiciously  large.  "  While  it  appears  from  the 
examination,"  said  their  report,  "that  few  of 
the  insane  were  under  restraint,  the  presence  of 
so  large  a  number  of  restraining  appliances 
within  the  institution,  in  the  absence  of  strict 
rules  and  regulations  on  the  subject,  may  lead 
to  great  abuses.  Attendants  find  it  much  easier 
to  manage  and  control  excited  and  violent  pa- 
tients, for  the  time  being,  by  placing  them  in 
restraint,  rather  than  by  seeking  to  overcome 


274     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

their  violence  and  excitement  by  personal  atten- 
tion in  the  wards.  This  mode  of  dealing  with 
them  is  quite  likely  to  be  resorted  to  during 
the  night,  to  secure  the  ease  and  comfort  of  the 
attendant." 

In  the  final  summing  of  their  conclusions 
the  committee  say:  *'A  retrospective  glance 
Report  of  over  the  whole  of  the  examination 
committee  shows  that,  with  few  exceptions,  the 
care  of  the  chronic  insane  in  the  counties  does 
not  attain  to  a  just  and  proper  standard.  In 
some  of  the  counties  the  deficiency  is  lamenta- 
ble." This  would  have  been  a  too  gentle  con- 
demnation of  the  conditions  described  in  the 
committee's  report  if  they  could  fairly  have 
taken  for  their  "just  and  proper  standard  "  of 
comparison  the  best  of  the  institutions  that 
Mr.  Letchworth  had  but  recently  seen.  They 
had  found,  for  example,  the  county  insane  es- 
tablishments provided  generally  with  but  small 
yards  for  the  airing  and  exercise  of  the  patients, 
and  these  shut  in,  in  all  but  two  instances,  by 
close  board  fences,  from  ten  to  fourteen  feet 
high.  Only  four  counties  afforded  any  kind 
of  outdoor  recreation  to  the  inmates,  two  of 
these  furnishing  swings,  one  allowing  quoits  to 
be  pitched,  and  two  permitting  games  of  ball. 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  275 

Defective  sewerage,  inadequate  water  supply, 
and  offensive  closets  were  facts  often  noted. 
Proper  warmth  during  the  winter  season  in 
many  badly  constructed  buildings  was  thought 
questionable  by  the  committee;  but  they  had 
no  thermometrical  record  to  judge  from.  Few 
counties  had  provided  a  hospital  ward  in  the  in- 
sane department.  In  but  one  was  an  open  fire 
found  in  any  room.  "In  some  instances,  cases  of 
acute  insanity  had  been  retained  in  the  county  es- 
tablishments contrary  to  law,"  and  both  county 
physicians  and  superintendents  of  the  poor  were 
ignorant  of  the  fact.  "It  frequently  happens," 
said  the  report,  "  that  the  certificates  of  insanity 
are  meagre  and  vague,  and  the  officers  to  whose 
custody  the  patient  is  committed  are  unable  to 
determine  the  duration  of  insanity,  or  to  obtain 
other  knowledge  necessary  to  a  proper  disposal 
or  treatment  of  the  case."  In  two  of  the  coun- 
ties visited  by  the  committee  they  found  the 
insane  departments  locked,  all  of  those  sup- 
posed to  be  "in  charge"  absent  —  the  keys 
with  them  —  and  the  insane  inmates  left  en- 
tirely to  themselves. 

Somewhat  in  extenuation  of  these  conditions 
and  to  show  the  difficulties  of  prompt  correction 
for  them,  the  committee  in  their  conclusions 


276     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

observed  :  "  It  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  many 
of  the  counties  applied  to  the  Board  for  exemp- 
tion from  the  operation  of  the  Willard  Asylum 
Act  as  a  temporary  measure,  intending  to  pro- 
vide for  their  chronic  insane  at  the  poorhouse 
until  such  time  only  as  the  state  should  receive 
them  under  its  care.  It  would  therefore,  per- 
haps, be  unjust  to  exact  as  large  an  expenditure 
on  buildings,  under  such  circumstances,  as  would 
have  been  proper  had  permanent  provision  been 
contemplated.  It  must  also  be  remembered 
that,  at  no  time  since  the  Board  was  empowered 
to  grant  these  exemptions,  has  the  state  been 
able  to  accommodate  the  insane  of  the  exempted 
counties  in  its  institutions." 

Recommendations  urged  by  the  committee 
were :  — 

(i)  That  "the  enlargement  of  state  provision, 
by  means  of  plain,  inexpensive  buildings,  with 
good  sanitary  surroundings  and  located  upon 
tracts  of  good  arable  land,  should  be  sufficient 
for  the  accommodation  of  all  counties  desiring 
to  place  their  chronic  insane  under  state  care." 

(2)  That  the  chronic  insane  should  not  be 
retained  by  counties  in  groups  numbering  less 
than  two  hundred  and  fifty. 

(3)  That  counties   having  smaller  numbers 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  277 

should  be  permitted  to  unite  and  establish  dis- 
trict asylums. 

(4)  That  the  control  and  management  of  all 
county  and  district  asylums  should  be  placed  un- 
der a  small  board  of  uncompensated  managers. 

(5)  That  in  all  cases  the  chronic  insane  should 
be  placed  under  the  immediate  charge  of  a  res- 
ident medical  superintendent. 

(6)  That  "  violent  and  disturbed  cases  should 
be  provided  for  in  appropriate  state  asylums." 

(7)  That  all  county  asylums  should  be  sep- 
arated in  management  and  in  finances  from  the 
poorhouse  establishments,  and  that  no  asylum 
building  hereafter  should  be  located  on  the 
poorhouse  farm. 

This  important  report  was  transmitted  to  the 

legislature  in  January,  1882,  but  was  kept  in 

the  hands  of  the  official  printer,  and   Care  of  the 

not,    therefore,    made    public,   until  insane  as- 

-.  .       .  J    sumed 

February,    1883.    It  received   good  whoUy  by 

attention  from  the  press  when  pub-  the  state 

lished,  and  the  facts  set  forth   in  it  appear  to 

have  excited  a  degree  of  public  feeling  which 

went  beyond  the  proposals  of  the  committee  in 

its  demand  for  reform.  An  agitation  was  started 

which   grew   and   gathered   force   until   it   had 

compelled  the  state  to  take  on  itself,  wholly 


278     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

and  exclusively,  the  care  of  the  insane  within 
its  borders,  and  to  equip  itself  adequately  with 
institutions  to  that  end.  This  was  stoutly  re- 
sisted by  partisan  political  interests  and  influ- 
ences in  the  counties,  such  as  operate  with 
vicious  activity  on  the  treatment  of  all  public 
questions.  To  the  managers  of  party,  who  ex- 
ercise a  power  that  controls  official  bodies  too 
often,  the  creating  and  maintaining  of  a  public 
institution  means  nothing  else  so  important  as 
the  making  and  keeping  of  an  instrument  for 
the  supplying  of  salaries  and  jobs  to  the  hench- 
men of  their  party.  In  this  view  they  fought 
the^endeavor  to  perfect  a  system  of  treatment 
for  insanity,  by  unifying  it  under  the  manage- 
ment of  the  state. 

Meantime,  while  this  conflict  between  public 
and  party  interests  —  between  altruism  and  self- 
ishness—  between  knowledge  and  ignorance  — 
was  going  on,  Mr.  Letchworth  found  opportu- 
nities for  efibrt  to  improve  the  working  of  the 
system  as  it  was.  In  1882  he  was  in  coopera- 
tion with  two  of  his  colleagues  of  the  State 
Board  of  Charities,  Mr.  William  Rhinelander 
Stewart  and  Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw  Lowell, 
leading  a  movement  which  had  success  in  estab- 
lishing a  farm  colony  for  the  insane  of  New 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  279 

York  City,  to  relieve  the  overcrowding  of  the 
Ward's  Island  Hospital,  on  plans  similar  to 
those  of  the  colony  at  Alt-Scherbitz,  in  the 
Prussian  Province  of  Saxony.  As  was  said  by 
one  who  wrote  to  Mr.  Letchworth  about  that 
achievement,  some  years  later,  they  "  initiated 
the  Central  Islip  project  and  practically  forced 
the  city  government  to  carry  it  through," — 
establishing  the  insane  on  a  farm  of  one  thou- 
sand acres  at  Central  Islip,  Suffolk  County, 
Long  Island. 

In  the  same  year,  "  having  become  fully  con- 
vinced," as  he  said  subsequently,  "that  the 
interests  of  the  state  would  be  ad-  ^^omen  on 
vanced  and  the  welfare  of  the  inmates  boards  of 
of  our  charitable  and  correctional  ^^^nagers 
institutions  promoted  by  a  representation  of 
women  on  each  of  the  boards  of  managers,"  he 
set  about  securing  legislation  to  make  that  rep- 
resentation a  requirement  of  law.  He  began  by 
setting  forth  in  a  printed  circular,  from  the  office 
of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  at  Albany,  a 
brief  summary  of  reasons  for  the  measure  pro- 
posed. In  this  circular  he  cited  the  success  of 
the  administration  of  many  public  charities  by 
men  and  women  associated  in  their  boards;  de- 
clared that  the  state  suffered  a  pecuniary  loss 


28o     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

by  not  availing  itself  of  woman's  superior  know- 
ledge of  domestic  economy  ;  asserted  that  "  fe- 
male delicacy  on  the  part  of  teachers,  nurses, 
attendants,  and  servants  in  public  charitable  in- 
stitutions, prevents  them  from  communicating 
to  men  .  .  .  information  necessary  to  the  pro- 
tection of  the  inmates,"  and  that  to  deprive 
women,  suffering  from  mental  or  bodily  disease 
in  public  institutions,  of  the  benefit  to  them  of 
a  representation  of  their  sex  in  the  management, 
is  an  "arrogant  assumption  of  power,  often 
eventuating  in  unintentional  cruelty." 

Early  in  his  campaign  for  this  measure  Mr. 
Letchworth  counselled  with  Mrs.  Abby  Hopper 
Gibbons,  of  New  York,  an  energetic  woman, 
closely  identified  with  charitable  reform  work 
and  of  large  experience  in  reform  movements, 
and  received  potent  assistance  from  her,  as  well 
as  excellent  advice.  Mrs.  Gibbons's  influence 
appears  to  have  enlisted  a  number  of  men  of 
weight  in  both  branches  of  the  legislature,  in- 
cluding Senator  Brooks,  of  Long  Island,  who 
introduced  the  desired  bill.  In  an  account  which 
Mr.  Letchworth,  some  years  afterwards,  gave 
of  Mrs.  Gibbons's  exertions  in  behalf  of  the 
bill,  he  credited  the  measure  to  her  entirely  and 
related  the  outcome  as  follows:  — 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  281 

It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  follow  the  course  of  this 
sad  experience,  sometimes  hopeful,  sometimes  disap- 
pointing, except  to  record,  for  the  example  to  others, 
the  disappointment  which  noble  reformers  like  Abby 
Hopper  Gibbons  must  encounter,  [in  efforts]  to  protect 
and  better  the  condition  of  the  unfortunate.  Mrs. 
Gibbons  did  not  succeed  in  securing  the  desired  legis- 
lation during  the  session  in  which  she  introduced  the 
bill ;  but  in  the  following  session,  nothing  daunted, 
she  introduced  it  again.  In  her  old  age  and  in  an  en- 
feebled condition  she  appeared  before  the  legislative 
committee  at  Albany,  and  so  clearly  and  forcibly  did 
she  present  her  arguments  and  make  her  appeal  that 
the  bill  was  accepted  and  passed  by  the  legislature. 
Shameful  to  relate,  however,  a  single  word  in  the  bill 
had  been  so  changed  as  to  absolutely  nullify  its  intent. 
This  was  the  word  may^  which  was  substituted  for  the 
word  shall^  leaving  it  optional  with  the  governor,  in- 
stead of  obligatory,  to  make  a  representative  appoint- 
ment of  women  on  the  boards,  thus  leaving  the  statute 
the  same  as  before.  But  the  beneficial  effects  of  the 
discussion  were  not  lost,  and  the  principle  has  come 
to  be  accepted  in  the  administration  of  our  state  chari- 
table institutions. 

Mr.  Letchworth's  agency  In  bringing  about 
the  acceptance  of  this  principle  was  not  confined 
to  the  movement  in  which  he  worked  with  Mrs. 
Gibbons.    He  advocated  it  strenuously  before 


282     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Cor- 
rection, in  his  presidential  address,  in  1884.  In 
1887  he  entered  earnestly  into  a  movement 
initiated  by  the  Women's  Educational  and  In- 
dustrial Union  of  Buffalo,  for  the  appointment 
of  two  women  on  the  board  of  managers  of  the 
State  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  at  Buffalo.  In 
an  earnest  letter  to  Governor  Hill  he  bore  tes- 
timony, from  his  long  experience  in  the  super- 
vision of  charitable  institutions,  to  the  great 
value  of  the  participation  of  women  in  their 
management,  and  his  entire  conviction  that  the 
state  should  give  them  representation  in  all 
boards  of  its  own  creation  for  humane  purposes, 
and  especially  in  the  case  of  asylums  for  the  in- 
sane, where  the  reasons  for  doing  so  became 
peculiarly  strong. 

In  1886   the    state  hospitals   for  the  insane 
were  seven  in  number,  namely  :  at  Utica,  existing 

since  184'^;  at  Ovid  (the  Willard), 
Locating  ,    •  ^  V,  • 

an  asylum      opened   m    1 869;    at   Poughkeepsie 

in  Northern  (the  Hudson  River  State  Hospital), 
opened  in  187 1  ;  at  Middletown  (the 
HomcEopathic),  opened  in  1874;  at  Bing- 
hamton  (converted  from  a  former  inebriate 
asylum)  in  1881 ;  and  a  state  asylum  for  insane 
criminals   at  Auburn.    They  provided,  under 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  283 

overcrowded  conditions,  for  scarcely  more  than 
four  thousand  of  the  thirteen  thousand  five 
hundred  insane  reported  that  year  to  be  under 
institutional  care  in  the  state.  Excepting  a  small 
number  in  private  asylums  the  remainder  were 
under  county  care.  The  pressure  of  the  demand 
for  less  dependence  on  the  counties  for  this  care, 
and  a  larger  provision  of  it  by  the  state,  had  now 
become  weighty  enough  to  impel  legislation 
which  authorized  the  governor  "to  appoint  five 
commissioners  to  select  a  suitable  site  in  north- 
ern New  York  on  which  to  erect  an  asylum 
for  the  insane."  Happily  for  the  result,  Mr. 
Letchworth  was  one  of  the  five  named  by  Gov- 
ernor Hill,  and  was  chosen  to  be  the  chairman 
of  the  commission.  During  the  next  six  months 
he  gave  much  time  to  this  duty,  making  long 
trips  through  the  northern  counties  of  the  state. 
Among  his  colleagues  on  the  commission  was 
Dr.  P.  M.  Wise,  superintendent  of  the  Willard 
Asylum,  and  Dr.  Wise  and  himself  arrived  at  the 
same  conclusion  of  choice  between  the  various 
sites  proposed,  preferring  one  at  Airy  Point, 
Ogdensburg,  before  every  other.  Without 
much  doubt  they  were  the  members  of  the 
commission  who  were  best  prepared  to  exercise 
an  intelligent  judgment  in  the  matter;  and  it  is 


284     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

possible  that  they  were  the  most  single-minded 
in  considering  what  would  be  best  for  the  pro- 
posed institution.  However  that  may  be,  their 
three  associates  arrived  at  a  different  choice,  and 
agreed  in  recommending  a  site  at  Plattsburg, 
which  Mr.  Letchworth  and  Dr.  Wise  regarded 
as  utterly  unfit,  in  itself  and  in  its  geographical 
location,  for  the  purpose  in  view.  A  majority 
and  a  minority  recommendation  were  accord- 
ingly reported  to  the  legislature,  early  in  Janu- 
ary, 1887,  and  a  hard-fought  battle  over  them 
was  waged  until  the  following  May.  Powerful 
political  interests  appeared  to  be  back  of  the 
majority  recommendation;  but  the  arguments 
and  the  exhibit  of  facts  submitted  by  Mr. 
Letchworth  and  Dr.  Wise  proved  more  power- 
ful, rallying  to  the  support  of  the  minority 
view  a  movement  of  opinion  from  the  press, 
from  medical  bodies,  and  from  the  public  at 
large,  which  carried  the  day. 

An  act  authorizing  and  making  appropria- 
tions for  the  purchase  of  the  Ogdensburg  site 
and  for  beginning  the  construction  of  buildings 
was  passed  before  the  close  of  the  legislative 
session.  Unfortunately,  the  expert  knowledge 
and  single-minded  motives  which  had  success- 
fully controlled  the  location  of  the  new  hospi- 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  285 

tal  for  the  insane  seem  not  to  have  won  equal 
control  of  the  constructive  planning.  The  coun- 
sels of  science  and  experience  in  the  matter 
were  not  listened  to  ;  the  most  approved  models 
were  disregarded;  and  when  the  resulting  build- 
ings were  approaching  readiness  for  use,  and  a 
medical  superintendent  was  sought,  to  prepare 
for  opening  it,  one  prominent  alienist  who  re- 
fused an  offer  of  the  position  is  reported  to  have 
said  to  the  managers  who  came  to  him  :  "You 
could  have  had  an  asylum  that  the  world  would 
have  admired,  at  half  the  cost  of  the  common- 
place institution  you  will  now  have,  and  that 
will  scarcely  be  known." 

It  had  now  become  necessary  for  Commis- 
sioner Letchworth  to  call  on  the  authorities  of 

Erie  County  for  a  new  and  greater    .        , 

•'  &  An  embar- 

undertaking  than  hitherto  to  provide  rassment  in 
for  the  proper  care  of  its  insane.  In  ^"®  County 
conjunction  with  the  Secretary  of  the  State 
Board  of  Charities,  Dr.  Hoyt,  he  addressed  a 
letter,  in  February,  1887,  to  the  proper  com- 
mittee of  the  County  Board  of  Supervisors, 
directing  attention  to  the  overcrowded  condi- 
tions that  had  arisen  again  in  the  insane  depart- 
ment of  the  county  poorhouse,  and  showing 
that  it  would  be  impossible,  on  the  limited  farm 


286     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

occupied  by  the  poorhouse,  to  give  such  treat- 
ment as  was  needed  to  the  large  and  increasing 
numbers  of  the  Erie  County  insane.  That  "em- 
ployment is  of  vital  importance  to  the  chronic 
insane,"  especially  outdoor  employment,  and 
that  a  low  rate  of  maintenance  is  best  secured 
"by  the  possession  of  a  liberal  acreage  of  good 
arable  land,"  were  two  facts  specially  empha- 
sized in  the  communication.  As  examples  of 
the  recognition  of  these  facts,  it  pointed  to  the 
recent  purchase  by  the  County  of  New  York 
of  a  thousand  acres  for  the  farm  settlement  of 
its  insane  at  Central  Islip,  Long  Island,  and 
the  similar  action  of  King's  County  in  establish- 
ing its  county  farm  at  St.  Johnsland.  Hence 
the  opinion  was  submitted  to  the  Erie  County 
Supervisors  that  "it  is  not  wise  to  enlarge  the 
buildings  at  the  almshouse,  or  to  erect  more 
cottages  on  the  almshouse  grounds;  but  that  it 
will  be  better  for  the  county  to  purchase  a  farm 
of  not  less  than  five  hundred  acres  of  arable 
land,  adapted  to  purposes  of  market  gardening 
and  easily  tillable  with  hoe  or  spade." 

The  communication  was  referred  to  a  special 
committee,  between  whom  and  Mr.  Letchworth 
there  were  conferences  and  correspondence  for 
some  time.  The  latter's  argument  for  the  pur- 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  287 

chase  of  a  tract  of  land  contemplated  no  radical 
sudden  changes  at  the  poorhouse,  nor  expen- 
sive new  building  on  the  farm  for  the  insane, 
but  proposed  "  to  utilize  any  comfortable  build- 
ings on  the  acquired  property  for  the  care  of 
the  excess  of  insane  men  over  present  accom- 
modations, and  as  the  numbers  increased,  or  as 
further  building  space  is  required  for  sane  pau- 
pers at  the  poorhouse,  to  erect  plain,  inexpen- 
sive buildings  on  the  new  farm."  At  the  same 
time  he  admitted  that  "  if  it  were  possible  for 
the  county  to  send  the  excess  of  its  chronic  in- 
sane to  the  Willard  Asylum  it  would  certainly 
be  advisable  to  do  so";  for  he  believed  "  there 
is  no  question  that  state  care  is  better  than 
county  care,"  and  cheaper,  for  the  reason  "that 
it  is  administered  by  uncompensated  non-parti- 
san boards,  whose  members  are  appointed  for 
long  terms,"  and  who  acquire  an  experience 
which  cannot  be  obtained  by  the  county  boards. 
The  outcome  of  long  discussion  and  inquiry  by 
the  supervisors'  committee  was  a  report  from 
it,  on  the  T3th  of  December,  1887,  unani- 
mously recommending  the  purchase  of  a  tract 
of  farm  land,  not  less  than  five  hundred  acres 
in  extent,  for  the  colonizing  of  the  county  in- 
sane. The  report  was  adopted  by  the  board  of 


288     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

supervisors ;  a  specially  appointed  committee 
made  choice,  in  due  time,  the  next  year,  of  the 
desired  land,  and  it  was  bought. 

In  the  circumstances,  this  was  unquestion- 
ably a  wise  measure.  The  local  need  of  enlarged 
accommodations  and  of  conditions  for  a  better 
treatment  of  the  insane  was  urgent  and  fast  in- 
creasing ;  there  seemed  in  sight  no  prospect  of 
adequate  preparation  by  the  state  to  relieve  the 
situation  ;  duty  to  the  insane  was  clearly  calling 
for  county  action  to  give  them  all  possible  alle- 
viation of  their  affliction  and  all  possible  chances 
of  cure.  But  now,  at  this  juncture,  an  unex- 
pected, quick  change  of  circumstances  occurred. 
The  State  Charities  Aid  Association,  by  pro- 
posing to  the  legislature  a  bill  to  provide  for 
the  transfer  of  both  acute  and  chronic  cases  of 
insanity  from  county  almshouses  to  the  care  of 
the  state,  freshened  and  stimulated  the  move- 
ment in  favor  of  that  important  change  of  pol- 
icy, and,  with  effective  support  from  the  medical 
profession,  intelligent  journalists,  and  intelligent 
people  in  general,  the  desired  enactment  was  se- 
cured during  the  legislative  session  of  1890. 
This  "  State  Care  Act,"  as  it  was  known,  abol- 
ished all  those  exemptions  from  the  Act  of  1 865 
which  the  State  Board  of  Charities  had  been 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  289 

authorized  to  grant  to  numerous  counties,  and 
restored  full  force  to  the  earlier  measure,  with 
three  exceptions:  New  York,  Kings,  and  Mon- 
roe counties  were  now  exempted  from  the  re- 
quirement to  transfer  their  insane  to  state  care, 
because,  as  explained  by  the  recently  created 
State  Commission  in  Lunacy,  each  of  these 
counties  "  had  provided  separate  institutions  for 
its  insane,  apart  from  its  poorhouse.  Their 
asylums  were  fully  organized  and  equipped  in- 
stitutions, and  were  managed  in  all  substantial 
particulars  like  the  state  asylums." 

Erie  County  was  preparing  to  do  the  same, 
and,  probably,  under  Mr.  Letchworth's  influ- 
ence, in  a  more  perfect  way.  He  had  a  reason- 
able hope  of  securing  the  construction  of  this 
county  hospital  on  the  cottage  plan,  modelled 
on  that  at  Alt-Scherbitz,  in  Prussian  Saxony, 
which  he  had  found  to  be  so  admirable  in  its 
working,  and  of  which  he  had  obtained  com- 
plete building  plans.  Much  as  he  approved  of 
the  adoption  by  the  state  of  the  entire  care  of 
the  insane,  it  was  a  sore  disappointment  to  him 
to  miss  the  opportunity  for  exhibiting  an  ex- 
ample of  the  superiority  of  the  cottage  system, 
in  economy  and  efficiency  alike,  as  compared 
with  any  big  construction  of  the  hotel  or  palace 


290     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

type.  In  view  of  the  completed  purchase  of  an 
ample  and  excellent  country  site  for  its  intended 
new  hospital,  he  could  not  oppose  the  de- 
sire of  Erie  County  to  be  included  with  New 
York,  Kings,  and  Monroe  in  exemption  from 
the  State  Care  Act ;  and  there  were  carping 
critics  who  found  an  inconsistency  in  this  atti- 
tude, as  well  as  other  critics  who,  when  the  ex- 
emption was  refused,  held  him  blamable  for 
leading  the  county  into  a  purchase  of  lands 
which  it  could  not  use.  His  own  consciousness 
of  a  consistent  view  and  a  justified  motive  with- 
held him  from  any  reply  to  such  criticisms,  and 
public  confidence  in  his  wise  guidance  of  pub- 
lic charity  was  not  weakened  in  the  least.  Had 
his  plans  for  Erie  County  been  carried  out,  a 
model  institution  would  have  been  created, 
which  the  state,  in  a  few  years,  would  have 
adopted  as  its  own  ;  for  that  is  what  occurred 
in  the  case  of  the  institutions  exempted  in  the 
counties  of  Monroe,  New  York,  and  Kings. 
Between  1891  and  1908  these  were  all  brought 
under  the  immediate  control  of  the  state.  As  to 
the  Erie  County  purchase  of  land,  that  came  in 
the  end  to  the  use  for  which  it  was  bought.  The 
state  took  it  and  established  on  it  the  Gowanda 
State  Homoeopathic  Hospital,  opened  in  1898. 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  291 

The  recommendations  and  the  action  of  Mr. 
Letchworth  in  the  matter  of  county  institutions 
for  the  insane,  as  in  the  exercise  of  his  official 
duties  touching  every  other  subject,  were  ad- 
justed reasonably  to  circumstances  in  each  case. 
Thus,  while  urging  the  supervisors  of  Erie 
County  to  plan  largely  for  a  farm  colony  of  the 
county  insane,  he  went  at  the  same  time,  in 
February,  1888,  to  a  meeting  of  the  super- 
visors of  Allegany  County  to  oppose  the  build- 
ing of  a  new  county  asylum  for  the  chronic  in- 
sane. The  circumstances  were  entirely  different, 
and  the  consistency  of  his  course  was  in  his 
recognition  of  the  difference. 

In  that  year,  i888,  he  was  urging  a  very  im- 
portant Improvement  of  building  arrangements 
at  the  Buffalo  State  Hospital  for  the  Hospitals 

Insane,  by  the  erection  of  cottages,  for  acute 
•  1      c         \  1    insanity: 

to    provide  tor  the  most   approved  matured 

system  of  treatment.  His  recom-  views 
mendations,  addressed  to  the  board  of  man- 
agers of  that  Institution  at  a  hearing  given  him, 
and  made  public  soon  after,  represent  his 
matured  views  so  succinctly  and  clearly  that  they 
seem  to  claim  full  quotation  here  :  — 

After  making  extended  examinations  of  hospitals 
and  asylums  for  the  insane,  I  have  become  convinced 


292     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

that  small  reception  cottages,  to  which  insane  patients 
may  be  first  taken  upon  admission  and  where  they 
may  remain  for  a  short  time  under  observation,  before 
being  assigned  a  more  permanent  place,  are  highly 
desirable  in  connection  with  all  hospitals  for  the  in- 
sane. The  shock  to  many  sensitive  patients  on  being 
ushered,  without  preliminary  explanation,  into  the 
formal-looking  ward  of  a  strange  edifice,  having  more 
or  less  prison-like  characteristics,  is  fearful.  On  the 
contrary,  if  the  patient  is  first  received  in  an  ordinary 
dwelling,  where  a  friendly  interview  is  had  with  the 
physician  and  possible  apprehensions  allayed,  and 
where  the  case  can  be  more  closely  studied  because 
of  the  home-like  surroundings  of  the  patient,  great 
mental  disturbance  is  frequently  avoided,  and  the  way 
is  opened  for  more  effective  treatment. 

I  believe  it  is  now  universally  conceded  that,  in 
the  treatment  of  acute  insanity,  it  is  found  desirable 
to  transfer  the  patient  from  one  ward  to  another,  the 
change  having  a  salutary  effect.  Some  alienists  go  far- 
ther than  this,  having  found  it  of  greater  advantage  to 
remove  the  patient,  when  convalescing,  from  the 
painful  associations  attending  the  first  stages  of  his 
disease  and  from  what  Miss  Dix  has  termed  "  the 
terrible  monotony  of  the  wards,"  to  a  pleasant  resi- 
dence entirely  removed  from  the  asylum,  where  the 
work  of  restoration  is  rapidly  accelerated.  I  think  the 
most  successful  of  these  experiments  is  seen  at  Dr. 
Clouston's  asylum  at  Morningside  in  Scotland,  where, 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  293 

in  the  Craig  House,  situated  at  least  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  away  and  embowered  amid  grand  old  trees,  we 
behold  highly  satisfactory  results  from  this  course  of 
treatment. 

In  pursuance  of  the  same  idea  and  in  the  line  of 
moral  treatment,  is  the  providing  of  seaside  summer 
cottages  for  the  convalescing  insane,  now  a  feature  of 
numerous  foreign  asylums,  and  also  of  the  McLean 
Asylum  in  Massachusetts  and  the  Friends'  Retreat  in 
Pennsylvania.  While  we  have  near  Buffalo  no  seaside 
resorts,  we  have  healthful  change  of  air  and  scene  with 
delightful  surroundings  on  the  near  shores  of  our  mag- 
nificent lakes  and  rivers. 

This  homelike  provision  and  means  of  recreation 
to  which  I  have  briefly  referred  having  proved  of  great 
advantage  elsewhere,  I  earnestly  ask  your  careful  con- 
sideration of  the  question,  whether  it  is  not  desirable 
to  ask  the  legislature  for  the  following  appropria- 
tion :  — 

First.  To  erect  and  furnish  two  cottages,  one  for 
men  and  one  for  women,  on  opposite  sides  of  the  asylum 
grounds,  but  entirely  apart  from  the  asylum,  of  suffi- 
cient size  to  accommodate,  say  ten  or  twelve  patients 
each,  the  structures  to  have  the  semblance  of  ordinary 
dwellings,  and  to  be  used  as  reception  and  observation 
cottages. 

Second.  To  erect  and  furnish  two  cottages,  one  on 
each  side  of  the  asylum  grounds,  one  for  men  and  one 
for  women,  each  to  accommodate,  say  from  twenty 


294     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

to  thirty  convalescing  patients,  the  building  to  have 
the  semblance  of  ordinary  residences  and  to  be  like- 
wise entirely  apart  from  the  asylum. 

Third.  To  provide  for  the  payment  of  the  services 
of  an  assistant  male  physician  to  reside  in  one  of  the 
two  houses  for  men,  and  for  the  payment  of  the  ser- 
vices of  an  assistant  female  physician  who  shall  reside 
in  one  of  the  two  houses  for  women. 

Fourth.  For  means  to  control  by  rental  during  the 
summer  months,  for  a  term  of,  say  three  experimental 
years,  a  small  tract  of  land  at  some  retired  point  upon 
Chautauqua  Lake,  or  other  desirable  locality  near 
Buffalo,  to  and  from  which  certain  quiet  and  convales- 
cing patients  may  be  taken  at  proper  seasons  and  shel- 
tered in  hospital  tents  or  temporary  structures,  possibly 
such  as  are  known  as  the  Ducker  portable  barrack 
and  field  hospital. 

The  ofHcial  relations  of  Mr,  Letchworth,  as 

a  commissioner  and  president  of  the  State  Board 

of  Charities,  to   the  institutions  for 
Change     in  .  •      i  • 

official  rela-   ^he  msane  m  his  state,  were  now  to 

tions  to  the  undergo  much  change.  By  an  act 
which  passed  the  legislature  in  May, 
1889,  a  large  part  of  the  duties,  powers,  and 
responsibilities  concerning  the  care  of  the  insane 
which  had  been  vested  in  the  State  Board  of 
Charities  was  transferred  to   a  State  Commis- 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  295 

sion  in  Lunacy.  "  There  is  very  little  left  for 
the  Board  to  do  regarding  the  insane,"  said  Mr. 
Letchworth  in  a  letter  written  to  a  friend  at  the 
time.  It  was  a  measure,  however,  which  he  fully 
approved.  This  approval  is  expressed  in  a  his- 
torical account  of  "The  Care  of  the  Insane  in 
New  York  State,  compiled  from  Notes  made 
by  William  Pryor  Letchworth,"  which  was  one 
of  the  works  of  his  last  years,  and  left  in  manu- 
script, though  it  ought  to  be  in  published  print. 
There  had  been  since  1 873  a  state  commissioner 
in  lunacy  whose  duty  was  to  examine  and  re- 
port to  the  State  Board  of  Charities  the  condi- 
tion of  the  insane  and  idiotic  in  the  institutions 
receiving  them.  "  It  had  become  evident,"  said 
Mr.  Letchworth,  in  the  manuscript  just  referred 
to,  "  that  a  more  comprehensive  system  of  lu- 
nacy supervision,  not  only  for  the  welfare  of 
the  insane,  but  for  the  interest  of  the  state,  was 
requisite.  The  framing  of  a  law  for  this  purpose 
was  delegated  to  Dr.  Stephen  Smith."  Dr.  Smith 
had  been  the  state  commissioner  in  lunacy  from 
1882  to  1888,  and  had  been,  also,  for  many 
years,  a  commissioner  of  the  State  Board  of 
Charities.  He  was,  as  Mr.  Letchworth,  his  close 
friend,  remarked,  "  eminently  qualified  for  this 
task,  through   his   experience  as  an  author,  a 


296     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

medical  practitioner,  and  a  psychologist,  and  by 
knowledge  acquired  through  long  experience  in 
the  inspection  of  state  hospitals  for  the  insane." 
The  bill  he  prepared  created  a  State  Commis- 
sion in  Lunacy,  composed  of  three  members, — 
one  to  be  a  reputable  physician,  "  who  has  had 
experience  in  the  care  and  treatment  of  the  in- 
sane and  in  the  management  of  institutions  for 
the  insane";  another  to  be  a  reputable  mem- 
ber of  the  bar,  and  the  third  a  "  reputable  citi- 
zen. 

As  Mr.  Letchworth  had  said  of  this  act,  it 
left  little  for  the  State  Board  of  Charities  to  do, 
touching  the  insane;  and  that  little  appears  to 
have  been  so  undefined  as  to  become  a  cause 
of  some  questions,  between  the  Commission  in 
Lunacy  and  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  as  to 
their  respective  duties  and  powers.  Mr.  Letch- 
worth, however,  was  able  still  to  find  openings 
of  service  to  the  cause  which  appealed  to  him 
so  pitifully. 

He  had  now  finished  his  elaborate  and  im- 

Publication    portant  report  on  the  care  and  treat- 

of    The  In-   ment  of  the  insane  in  European  in- 
sane in  For-       .       .  .  .  ,   ,       ,  .       . 
eign    Coun-    stitutions,  as  mvestigated  by  him  m 

tries"  1 880,  and  it  was  beautifully  published 

in  1889,  by  the  Messrs.  Putnam's  Sons,  New 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  297 

York,  forming  a  large  royal  octavo  volume  of 
374  pages,  illustrated  by  Mr.  Elias  J.  Whitney, 
of  New  York,  with  historical  pictures  as  well  as 
with  views  and  plans  of  buildings  and  grounds. 
"The  Insane  in  Foreign  Countries"  was  the 
title  given  to  the  work.  During  the  period  of 
its  preparation  there  had  been  many  trying 
hindrances,  wearisome  interruptions,  and  actual 
disasters,  which  stretched  the  labor  over  about 
seven  years.  He  had  been  called  to  long  halts 
in  it  by  other  tasks,  and  he  had  never  been  able 
to  give  himself  to  it  undividedly.  At  one  time 
a  large  part  of  it  was  in  print  and  destroyed 
by  a  fire  at  the  printing  establishment  which 
had  it  in  hand.  Then,  finally,  time  was  taken 
to  procure  statistical  and  other  facts  dealt  with 
down  to  the  latest  attainable  date.  But  if  the 
literary  performance  was  slow,  it  was  painstak- 
ing and  exact;  in  securing  which  quality  the 
author  had  effective  assistance  from  his  sec- 
retary. Miss  Caroline  Bishop,  and  from  his 
always  helpful  friend,  Mr.  James  N.  Johnston. 
To  the  latter  he  owed  many  translations  from 
German  and  French  books,  documents,  and 
letters,  as  well  as  the  suggestion  and  advice 
which  he  sought  in  most  matters  and  trusted 
greatly  from  this  source,  characterizing  it  as  "  the 


298     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

wise  counsel  and  unerring  judgment  of  the 
*  lang  heid.'  " 

Almost  simultaneously  with  the  completed 
printing  of  the  book  an  act  consolidating  the 
English  lunacy  laws  and  making  important 
changes  in  them  was  passed  by  parliament.  This 
called  for  a  revision  of  the  treatment  of  English 
legislation  on  the  subject  and  the  early  issuing 
of  a  new  edition  of  the  work. 

The  subjects  of  the  descriptive  part  of  this 
work  have  been  indicated  quite  fully  in  what 
has  been  told  of  Mr.  Letchworth's  European 
tour  and  the  inspections  then  made.  His  pur- 
pose was  to  present  a  clear  showing  of  the  best 
of  the  institutions  that  he  found  in  other  coun- 
tries, setting  them  in  comparison  with  each 
other  and  with  those  in  the  United  States,  and 
exhibiting  all  their  features,  of  construction,  ar- 
rangement, surroundings,  management,  meth- 
ods, and  governing  ideas  of  treatment  for  the 
insane,  which  offered  anything  of  suggestion  or 
instruction.  This  is  done  with  careful  exacti- 
tude, and  with  enough  of  detail  for  its  purpose. 
It  is  a  part  of  the  work  which  had  more  educa- 
tional value  at  the  time  of  its  publication  than 
now ;  but  there  remains  to  it  an  interest  of  his- 
tory that  cannot  be  lost.  The  lasting  and  great 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  299 

worth  of  the  book  Is  in  the  "Resume"  of  itsfinal 
chapter,  where  the  author  has  exhibited,  so  to 
speak,  the  harvest  of  his  own  mind  from  the 
studies  he  had  made,  setting  forth  the  conclusions 
he  had  drawn,  not  alone  from  these  wide  special 
examinations  abroad,  but  from  all  his  many- 
years  of  official  observation  of  methods  and 
conditions  attending  the  treatment  of  the  in- 
sane. 

Of  buildings  and  their  location,  furnishings 
and  decoration,  grounds,  sewage  and  water 
supply,  the  discussion  is  full  and  very  inform- 
ing. Equally  so  is  that  which  follows,  bearing 
on  the  freedom  that  can  be  given  to  the  de- 
mented with  happy  effects;  the  possible  disuse 
of  mechanical  restraints ;  the  importance  of 
thoroughly  trained  attendants;  the  curative  in- 
fluence of  appropriate  amusements  and  employ- 
ments, with  small  payments  for  work  performed 
—  and  many  other  topics  which  must  necessarily 
enter  into  any  organization  of  care  for  insane 
patients  that  is  heedful  at  all  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced knowledge  and  practice  of  the  present 
day. 

The  admirable  quality  of  the  treatise,  the 
supreme  Importance  of  the  matters  with  which 
It  dealt  and   the  high  value  of  the  enlighten- 


300     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

ment  it  threw  upon  them,  were  recognized  at 
once  by  those  qualified  for  the  recognition. 
Welcome  Leading  alienists  at  home  and  abroad 
to  the  book  gave  it  a  specially  cordial  reception, 
byaliemsts  Letters  of  commendation  came  to 
its  author  from  Dr.  Albrecht  Paetz,  director 
of  the  Prussian-Saxon  Provincial  Asylum  of 
Alt-Scherbitz ;  Dr.  John  Sibbald,  of  the  Gen- 
eral Board  of  Lunacy,  Edinburgh ;  Dr.  Samuel 
Wesley  Smith,  New  York  State  Commissioner 
in  Lunacy;  Dr.  Stephen  Smith,  formerly  in  the 
same  office;  Dr.  Clark  Bell,  president  of  the 
Medico-Legal  Society;  Dr.  P.  M.  Wise,  medi- 
cal superintendent  of  the  Willard  Asylum,  and 
other  speciaHsts  in  the  medical  profession.  The 
book  was  reviewed  at  length  by  Dr.  W.  W.  Ire- 
land in  the  London  Medical  Recorder ;  by  Dr. 
Frederick  Peterson  in  the  Medical  Analectic ; 
and  without  signature  by  writers  of  evident 
authority  in  all  the  leading  medical  journals 
of  the  United  States.  In  the  daily  newspaper 
press  of  the  country  it  received  more  interested 
attention  than  is  given  commonly  to  works  of 
its  kind. 

But  the  best  proof  that  the  work  had  secured 
a  high  place  in  the  literature  of  its  subject  ap- 
peared in  1905,  when  Dr.  Kalman  Pandy,  prin- 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  301 

cipal  physician  of  the  State  Insane  Asylum  at 
Budapest,  published  in  the  Magyar  language  a 
work  on  the  "Insane  in  Europe,"  which  (with 
careful  credit)  drew  extensively  from  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's  pages  and  gave  a  flattering  considera- 
tion to  his  views.  Two  years  later  a  German 
translation  of  Dr.  Pandy's  book  was  published, 
the  translation  having  been  revised  by  Dr.  H. 
Engelken,  of  the  Alt-Scherbitz  staff,  and  it  was 
dedicated  to  Dr.  Paetz,  the  head  of  the  famous 
Alt-Scherbitz  Institution,  which  all  the  world 
was  coming  to  regard,  as  the  model  to  be  copied 
in  caring  for  the  Insane.  The  standing  of  Dr. 
Pandy's  book  was  thus  guaranteed  by  the  im- 
primatur of  Alt-Scherbitz,  and  there  was  weight, 
therefore,  in  the  remark  with  which  he  opened 
his  preface  to  it :  "  Since  the  appearance  of  the 
standard  work  of  Tucker  ('  Lunacy  In  Many 
Lands,'  Sydney,  1 887),  and  the  excellent  studies 
of  Letchworth  ('The  Insane  in  Foreign  Coun- 
tries,' second  ed..  New  York  and  London, 
1889),  no  book  to  my  knowledge  has  appeared 
that  has  treated  these  highly  important  matters 
relating  to  humanity  and  the  social  life  with  a 
larger  grasp."  In  a  review  of  Dr.  Pandy's  book 
the  'Journal  of  Insanity  remarked  :  "  It  Is  very  in- 
teresting to  observe  how  closely  his  conclusions 


302     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

confirm  the  painstaking  accounts  given  by  our 
own  countryman,  William  Pryor  Letchworth, 
who  did  so  much  by  his  admirable  work  to  bring 
the  methods  of  foreign  hospitals  for  the  insane 
to  the  knowledge  of  alienists  in  this  and  other 
English-speaking  countries.  It  can  but  be  most 
gratifying  to  him,  in  reviewing  the  incidents  of 
a  life  devoted  to  the  betterment  of  the  care  of 
all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  to  feel  that  his 
self-denying  labors  in  behalf  of  the  insane  are 
so  widely  known  and  appreciated  both  at  home 
and  abroad." 

Late  in  1890  it  would  seem  that  Mr.  Letch- 
worth had  not  yet  been  released  by  the  legisla- 
T..    ,  tion  of  the  previous  year  from  the  in- 

rinal  serv-  r  -^ 

ices  to  the  spection  of  institutions  for  the  insane, 
insane  f^j.  j^^  wrote  in  a  letter  of  October 

14:  "  Last  night  I  returned  home,  having  just 
completed  a  visitation  of  all  the  state  institu- 
tions for  the  insane,  as  also  those  vast  county  re- 
ceptacles for  this  class  in  New  York  and  Kings." 
No  published  report  of  this  visitation  has  been 
found.  Probably  it  was  his  last  survey  of  state 
asylums  and  hospitals.  His  periodic  inspection 
of  other  public  charities  in  his  judicial  district, 
which  he  performed  with  fidelity  to  the  end  of 
his  official  service,  brought  him  for  some  years 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  303 

yet,  at  the  poorhouses,  into  county  insane  asy- 
lums which  lingered  in  existence,  waiting  for 
the  state  to  be  prepared  to  take  their  inmates 
away.  It  was  not  until  1894,  for  example,  that 
the  insane  of  the  Erie  County  Poorhouse  were 
removed  to  the  Willard  Asylum. 

What  appears  to  have  been  the  last  recorded 
service  of  Mr.  Letchworth  as  an  official  guardian 
and  advocate  of  the  interests  of  the  insane  was 
rendered  in  February,  1892,  when  he  addressed  a 
memorial  to  the  legislature  "embodying reasons 
why  the  asylum  for  insane  criminals  at  Auburn 
should  not  be  made  a  receptacle  for  the  non- 
criminal insane."  The  insane  criminals  at  Au- 
burn were  soon  to  be  removed  to  the  new  in- 
stitution for  that  class  of  the  demented  which 
the  state  was  then  establishing  at  Matteawan, 
and  serious  consideration  was  being  given  in 
the  legislature  to  a  bill  which  provided  for  util- 
izing the  buildings  vacated  at  Auburn  Prison 
by  their  conversion  to  the  purposes  of  a  state 
hospital  for  the  non-criminal  insane.  This,  too, 
in  the  face  of  the  fact  that,  both  in  their  own 
structural  unfitness  and  in  their  situation  as  part 
of  the  prison  establishment,  they  had  been  con- 
demned by  the  commission  on  whose  recom- 
mendation the  Matteawan  Hospital  was  being 


304     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

established.  The  flagrancy  of  the  project  was 
exposed  by  Mr.  Letchworth  with  a  force  which 
must  have  been  most  influential  In  bringing  it 
to  an  end.  The  next  legislature  (1893)  repealed 
the  original  act  which  established  the  State 
Asylum  for  Insane  Criminals  at  Auburn. 

Throughout  the  years  (say  in  the  decade 
1880—90)  in  which  the  greater  energies  of  his 
G  ne  loffi-  ^^^^  were  expended  by  Mr.  Letch- 
cial  labors  of  worth  on  two  endeavors,  — to  better 
1880-90  |.j^g  dealing  with  errant  children  and 
to  better  the  care  and  treatment  of  the  insane, 
—  these  specialties  of  his  labor  were  far  from 
absorbing  his  time  or  his  thought.  He  spent 
much  of  both  in  the  service  of  other  causes,  and 
very  little  in  indulgences  of  any  sort  to  himself. 
Social  as  he  was  in  his  nature,  and  keenly  as  he 
enjoyed  gatherings  of  his  friends  at  Glen  Iris, 
he  had  become  too  busy  a  man  to  maintain  the 
large,  open  hospitality  of  former  years.  Not 
that  he  became  recluse  in  the  least,  and  not  that 
Glen  Iris  lost  anything  of  its  hospitable  atmo- 
sphere ;  but  invitations  and  visitings  were  neces- 
sarily cut  down  by  the  frequent  and  often  long 
absences  of  the  master  and  by  the  work  that 
tasked  him  when  at  home. 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  305 

In  1882,  along  with  his  arduous  inspection 
of  and  report  on  the  insane  departments  of 
poorhouses  in  the  state,  he  was  giving  laborious 
help  to  a  movement  in  Buffalo  for  the  rehabili- 
tation of  a  Children's  Aid  Society  that  had  not 
realized  the  intentions  with  which  it  was  formed. 
He  had  been  one  of  the  prime  movers  in  the 
organization  of  the  society  ten  years  before, 
when  the  impulse  to  it  was  given  by  a  public 
Thanksgiving  Day  dinner  to  the  newsboys  and 
bootblacks  of  the  city,  at  which  he  was  the  prin- 
cipal speaker  to  the  boys.  Now  the  officers  of 
the  society  were  endeavoring  to  revive  activity 
in  its  undertakings,  and  applied  to  him  for 
advice  and  instruction  as  to  the  methods  of 
work  they  should  take  in  hand.  He  might  easily 
have  thought  it  sufficient  to  refer  them  to  some 
of  his  published  writings  on  the  subject  of  "pre- 
ventive work  among  children,"  but  that  could 
not  satisfy  his  wish  to  serve  them  to  the  utmost 
of  his  power.  He  made  the  reference,  to  be  sure, 
but  he  added,  in  writing  to  them  from  Albany: 
"With  the  view  of  putting  you  in  possession 
of  the  most  recent  experience,  I  have  visited, 
since  receiving  your  letter,  several  institutions 
illustrative  of  the  points  in  reference  to  which 
your  interrogatories  are  propounded.  The  fol- 


3o6     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

lowing  sketches  are  submitted  in  the  hope  that 
they  may  offer  useful  suggestions."  This  intro- 
duced an  extended  description  of  the  various 
undertakings,  "for  newsboys,  street  children, 
and  needy  and  ignorant  girls,"  conducted  by 
the  Brooklyn  Children's  Aid  Society,  at  its 
Newsboys'  Home  and  Evening  School,  its  In- 
dustrial School,  its  Sewing-Machine  School,  its 
Special  Relief  Department,  its  Day  Nursery, 
and  its  Seaside  Home,  at  Brighton  Beach.  Then 
followed  accounts  of  the  Home  for  Street  Boys 
carried  on  by  the  Brooklyn  Society  of  St.  Vin- 
cent de  Paul;  the  broad  work  of  the  New 
York  Children's  Aid  Society,  which  maintained 
twenty-one  industrial  schools  and  twelve  even- 
ing schools,  besides  its  home  for  boys ;  and  the 
homes,  shelters,  and  nurseries  of  the  American 
Female  Guardian  Society.  Finally,  the  writer  nar- 
rated some  interesting  and  instructive  incidents 
of  his  visit  to  the  headquarters  of  the  New  York 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Chil- 
dren, and  the  first  of  the  recommendations  which 
closed  his  letter  was  "  the  establishinor  on  a  sound 
basis  of  the  work  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to 
children."  All  this  represented  the  labor  of  many 
days,  performed  at  a  very  busy  time  in  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's  official  service,  and  quite  outside  of  that. 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  307 

Three  years  afterwards,  on  the  iid  of  May, 
1885,  he  was  present  and  spoke  at  the  opening 
of  a  new  Home  which  the  Children's  Aid 
Society  of  Buffalo  had  bought  and  fitted  and 
furnished  for  its  newsboy  and  bootblack  guests. 
In  his  address  he  congratulated  the  society  on 
the  success  it  had  thus  far  achieved,  and  ex- 
tended his  especial  congratulations  to  "the 
first  mover  in  the  attempt  to  elevate  the  news- 
boys and  bootblacks  of  this  city,  in  the  per- 
son," he  said,  "of  our  modest  friend,  Mr. 
David  E.  Brown."  In  closing,  he  remarked: 
"In  this  city  we  have  real  noblemen, — men 
blessed  with  generous  natures  and  honestly 
acquired  fortunes.  It  would  not  be  strange  if 
from  some  of  these  should  at  no  distant  day 
come  the  gift  of  a  stately  edifice  for  the  carry- 
ing on  of  the  beneficent  work  for  poor  chil- 
dren." Before  he  died  he  saw  the  faith  that 
was  expressed  in  these  words  justified  by  the 
opening,  in  1908,  of  a  new,  larger,  and  better 
Home  for  newsboys,  bootblacks,  and  their 
class,  representing  a  bequest  to  the  society,  not 
by  a  man  of  the  city,  but  by  a  generous  woman, 
Mrs.  Helen  Thornton  Campbell. 

Of  other  doings  and  writings  of  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  in  these  years,  1882-85,  apart  from  what 


3o8     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

has  already  been  told  of  his  labors  in  the  inter- 
est of  delinquent  children  and  the  insane,  some 
cursory  mention  will  suffice.  They  include  a 
report  in  1882  of  two  inspections  of  the  Tho- 
mas Orphan  Asylum  on  the  Cattaraugus  In- 
dian Reservation;  a  paper  on  the  "Dependent 
and  Delinquent  Children  of  the  State  of  New 
York,"  prepared  in  1883,  in  response  to  a  re- 
quest, for  the  Congres  International  de  la  Pro- 
tection de  I'Enfance,  held  at  Paris  in  June ; 
an  address  introducing  Bishop  Ireland,  at  a 
great  meeting  in  Buffalo  for  temperance,  in 
1884;  an  address  on  "Poorhouse  Administra- 
tion," at  a  state  convention  of  county  superin- 
tendents of  the  poor,  in  1885. 

In   that    year    he   received,   from   Governor 
Hill,  his  second  reappointment   on  the   State 
Board  of  Charities,  as  Commissioner 
pointment       ^^^^   the    Eighth   Judicial    District, 
on  the  State   But  the  Governor,  in  his  next  annual 
°"  message   to   the    legislature,   recom- 

mended the  abolition  of  the  Board,  and  the 
substitution  of  a  single  "official  to  be  known 
as  the  Commissioner  of  Charities,  who  shall  be 
vested,"  said  the  Governor,  "with  substantially 
all  the  duties  now  exercised  by  such  Board,  as 
well  as  those  performed  by  the  Commissioner 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  309 

in  Lunacy."  The  argument  supporting  the 
recommendation  was  this:  "A  board  consisting 
of  eleven  persons  (aside  from  its  ex-officio 
members),  scattered  in  various  parts  of  the 
state,  and  which  only  occasionally  meets,  is  a 
cumbersome  and  unwieldy  body.  It  cannot  per- 
form its  duties  as  efficiently  or  satisfactorily  as 
a  single  responsible  head.  Its  functions  cannot 
be  discharged  as  economically  or  expeditiously 
as  when  in  the  hands  of  one  controlling  execu- 
tive officer." 

In  attempting  to  uphold  the  governor's  ar- 
gument, his  party  organ  at  Albany, 
the     Argus ^     made     statements     so  political  at- 
grossly   incorrect   that   they  drew  a  tacks  on  the 
letter    of  expostulation    from     Mr. 
Letchworth. 

From  the  official  figures  [said  the  Jrgus'\  it  is 
shown  that  the  daily  personal  expense  of  each  com- 
missioner averages  twenty-nine  dollars,  and  that  for 
three  days'  services  the  sum  reached  nearly  ninety  dol- 
lars for  each  commissioner.  With  eleven  members  on 
the  Board  the  citizen  and  taxpayer,  who  desire  to  see 
the  affairs  of  state  government  economically  adminis- 
tered, can  readily  see  that  ;$  3 1 9  per  day  for  the  per- 
sonal expenses  of  the  Board  is  a  sum  far  in  excess  of 
what  it  should  be,  and  agree  with  Governor  Hill  that 


3IO     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

a  single  commissioner,  at  a  stated  salary,  will  not  only 
insure  a  saving  of  public  moneys  to  the  state,  but  that 
the  work  will  be  performed  fully  as  well.  It  is  to  be 
admitted  that  the  state  is  rich,  but  many  will  object  to 
eleven  commissioners  in  session,  say  in  New  York, 
stopping  at  hotels  where  the  daily  rate  for  each  com- 
missioner is  five  or  six  dollars. 

To  this  Mr.  Letchworth  made  answer :  — 

It  has  been  customary,  in  consideration  of  the 
large  charitable  interests  centring  in  New  York  and 
Brooklyn,  and  for  the  greater  convenience  of  those  hav- 
ing business  to  transact  with  the  Board,  to  hold  one  of 
its  stated  meetings  during  the  year  in  New  York  City. 
The  last  one  held  there  was  on  the  15th,  i6th,  and 
17th  days  of  December,  1885,  which  was  attended 
by  eight  members,  together  with  the  secretary  and 
assistant  secretary.  According  to  your  estimate,  the 
expenses  of  this  session  of  three  days  for  ten  persons 
at  thirty  dollars  per  day  would  have  aggregated  $  900. 
The  actual  expenses,  however,  including  the  travelling 
expenses  of  the  commissioners  and  secretaries  in 
going  and  coming,  according  to  official  figures,  was 
;^ 1 36.38,  making  a  discrepancy  in  your  statement  of 
^763.62.  .  .  .  The  expenses  of  the  Board  from  its 
organization  in  1867  to  October  i,  1885,  for  the 
travelling  expenses  and  hotel  bills  of  its  commission- 
ers, committees,  and  officers,  in  the  inspection  of  in- 
stitutions and   in  attendance  upon    its  meetings,  for 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  311 

clerk  hire,  printing,  office  expenses,  and  contingencies, 
have  never  exceeded  the  legislative  appropriation, 
which  in  no  instance  has  been  more  than  $5000  per 
annum.  Considering  the  time  spent  by  the  commis- 
sioners in  the  performance  of  their  duties,  and  the 
saving  results  to  the  state,  many  will  doubtless  admit 
that  it  has  not  paid  dearly  for  the  unsalaried  service 
of  the  comissioners. 

Of  course  Mr.  Letchworth  made  no  men- 
tion of  the  important  fact  that,  personally,  he 
had  never  drawn  payment  from  the  His  person- 
state  treasury  for  even  the  travelling  ^^  sift  of 

r  ,  ■  •  •       both  service 

expenses  or  his  service  as  commis-  ^^^  ^^_ 

sioner,  much  travel  as  it  involved,  penses 
It  was  a  fact  known  to  few;  and  he  was  still  to 
continue  the  fact;  for  he  and  his  associates  of 
the  State  Board  of  Charities  were  not  deprived 
of  the  privilegeof  giving  unpaid  labor  and  time 
to  the  discharge  of  the  very  gravest  of  the  ob- 
ligations of  the  state.  Public  opinion  proved 
unfriendly  to  the  recommendations  of  the  Gov- 
ernor, and  the  State  Board  was  not  set  aside. 
The  incessancy  of  the  strain  of  work  on  him 

in  this  period  may  be  inferred  from  _, 

^      ^  ■'  The  severe 

a  remark   in   one   of  his   letters   to  strain  of 

a  friend,   dated  in   October,   1886:  ^^^"^ 

"  I   am   now,"   he  said,  "  for  the  first  time  in 


312     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

years,  at  the  bottom  of  my  correspondence,  both 
home  and  foreign;  have  my  public  work  well 
in  hand,  and  D.V.,  shall  take  hold  again  of  my 
foreign  notes  [on  '  The  Insane  in  Foreign 
Countries ']  and  with  hammer  and  tongs  go  at 
them  with  a  right  good  will."  Two  months 
later  he  was  indulging  himself  in  a  rare  respite 
from  official  duties,  going  with  one  of  his  neigh- 
bors of  Livingston  County  to  the  Blue  Grass 
region  of  Kentucky,  and  spending  two  or  three 
weeks  in  visiting  its  famous  herds  of  shorthorn 
cattle,  selecting  purchases  for  his  farm,  as  he 
wrote  home,  "  from  some  of  the  very  best  fam- 
ilies of  cattle  in  Kentucky."  "  We  have  paid 
some  high  prices,"  he  added,  "  and  must  take 
our  chances  upon  getting  our  money  back.  If 
we  do  not  we  shall  have  the  satisfaction  of  feel- 
ing that  we  have  done  something  that  may  im- 
prove the  herds  of  western  New  York." 

Sorrow  came  to  him  in  May  of  the  next 
spring,  when  his  brother  George  died.  There 
had  been  hopes  of  recovery  from  a  stroke  of 
paralysis,  suffered  a  year  before,  and  the  invalid 
had  been  taken  to  England  under  the  care  of 
his  wife  and  daughter,  but  only  to  end  life  in  a 
strange  land.  Within  less  than  a  year  there 
was  grief  brought  again  to  Mr.  Letchworth  by 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  313 

the  untimely  death,  in  February,  1888,  of 
David  Gray,  to  whom  he  was  most  warmly  and 
tenderly  attached. 

In  these  two  years  (1887-88)  he  was  put- 
ting aside  more  resolutely  the  exterior  calls  and 
lesser  tasks  which  had  burdened  him  so  much, 
and  applying  himself  as  closely  as  possible  to 
the  completion  of  his  book  on  the  insane  in 
foreign  countries.  No  doubt  he  had  been  influ- 
enced by  the  wise  advice  of  his  friend  Johnston, 
who  wrote  to  him  in  May  of  the  former  year : 
"I  wish  you  could  lighten  your  work  a  little. 
Other  men  ultimately  must  take  your  burden  ; 
why  not  begin  now  to  let  them  do  so  ?  Your 
supervision,  suggestions,  assistance  would  be 
better  than  taking  so  much  detail  work  on  your- 
self Reserve  your  strength  for  the  larger  work, 
occasional  and  national,  where  a  wider  influence 
is  exerted  and  less  routine  labor  would  be  re- 
quired from  you."  Evidently  this  was  what  he 
was  now  beginning  to  attempt,  and  with  some 
degree  of  success,  though  not  complete. 

In  October,  1887,  he  felt  it  necessary  to  de- 
cline a  request  from  his  English  friends  to  con- 
tribute a  paper  to  the  General  Conference  of 
the  National  Association  of  Certified  Reform- 
atory and  Industrial  Schools,  in  England,  which 


314     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

would   be   held   at   London   in   the    following 

March. 

On  the  loth  of  April,  1888,  he  addressed  to 

the  State  Board  of  Charities  his  resignation  of 

the  office  of  president  of  the  Board, 
Resignation     .  . 

of  the  presi-  i^  which  he  had  been  kept  by  re- 
dency  of  the  peated  elections  for  eleven  years.  At 
the  meeting  of  the  Board  which  re- 
ceived it  he  was  not  present,  and  the  resigna- 
tion was  not  accepted,  but  he  was  reelected  with 
unanimity  for  another  term.  He  wrote  at  once: 
"I  shall  decline  again  at  next  meeting,"  and  he 
did.  The  Board  then  respected  the  earnestness 
of  his  wish  to  be  released  from  the  responsi- 
bilities and  labors  of  the  office,  and  Mr.  Oscar 
Craig,  of  Rochester,  was  chosen  in  his  place.  It 
was  a  post  of  dignity  and  honor,  which  some 
men  might  be  able  to  enjoy  without  feeling 
that  it  laid  much  else  upon  them  ;  but  Mr. 
Letchworth  had  certainly  found  in  it  a  heavy 
addition  of  duty  and  weight  of  care.  To  be- 
come again  just  Commissioner  for  the  Eighth 
Judicial  District  of  New  York  on  the  State 
Board  of  Chanties  was  an  undoubted  relief. 

In  the  next  half-dozen  years,  which  brought 
his  official  service  to  its  conclusion,  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's    writings,    in    reports,    addresses,    and 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  315 

other  published  papers,  included  reports  on 
the  poorhouses  of  the  Eighth  Judicial  District 
in  1891,  1893,  and  1896;  reports  q^^.^j  ^g_ 
on  the  New  York  State  Institu-  ports  of 
tion  for  the  Blind  in  1892,  1894,  1890-96 
and  1895;  a  general  report  on  the  institutions 
conducting  charitable  and  reform  work  in  the 
Eighth  Judicial  District,  in  1893  ;  a  report  (in 
conjunction  with  Dr.  Stephen  Smith,  one  of  his 
colleagues  in  the  State  Board  of  Charities)  on 
plans  for  the  then  projected  Eastern  New  York 
Reformatory,  in  his  studies  for  which  he  visited 
prisons  in  four  states  during  the  summer  of 
1894;  reports  of  investigations  made  of  institu- 
tions at  Lockport  and  Jamestown,  in  1894;  re- 
ports of  inspections  of  the  Thomas  Orphan 
Asylum,  on  the  Cattaraugus  Reservation,  in 
1894,  1895,  a"d  1896;  a  carefully  studied 
paper  on  "  Poorhouse  Construction,"  read  at  a 
New  York  State  Convention  of  Superintend- 
ents of  the  Poor,  in  1890;  a  paper  in  1892  for 
the  annual  National  Conference  of  Charities 
and  Correction,  on  "  State  Boards  of  Charity,'* 
one  of  the  most  valuable  of  his  essays,  critically 
discussing  the  organization,  duties,  and  powers 
of  such  boards  and  tracing  their  development 
historically;  a  "  History  of  Child-saving  Work 


3i6     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

in  the  State  of  New  York,"  prepared  on 
request  for  the  Conference  of  Charities  and 
Correction  at  Chicago,  in  connection  with  the 
Columbian  Exposition  of  1893,  and  praised 
enthusiastically  in  letters  to  Mr.  Letchworth 
by  Miss  Clara  Barton. 

The  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago  opened 
what  seemed  to  Mr.  Letchworth  to  be  an  op- 
portunity for  setting  on  foot  a  governmental 
undertaking  in  the  interest  of  public  charities 
which  had  long  been  in  his  thought.  Acting  as 
a  member  of  a  committee  appointed  at  a  con- 
ference of  state  boards  of  charities,  in  1874,  to 
formulate  a  plan  of  cooperation  in  the  collection 
of  statistics,  he  became  persuaded  that  a  bureau 
of  the  general  governmentwas  the  agency  needed 
for  this  statistical  work.  As  he  remarked  in  writ- 
ing of  the  matter  subsequently,  "such  a  bureau 
might  include  information  on  all  subjects  affect- 
ing the  dependent  and  criminal  classes,  in  other 
countries  as  well  as  our  own,  and  include  plans 
and  models  of  buildings,  descriptive  of  differ- 
ent systems  for  the  care  and  treatment  of  these 
classes,  and  all  valuable  literature  relating  to 
these  subjects."  He  found  no  favorable  oppor- 
tunity for  urging  this  important  project  until 
the   closing  of  the   Columbian  Exposition  at 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  317 

Chicago,  in  1893.  ^^  then  made  an  effort  to 
bring  about  a  transfer  of  the  extensive  exhibit 
of  charts,  plans,  models,  etc.,  there  collected,  to 
Washington,  to  become  the  foundation  of  a 
permanent  governmental  undertaking.  Unfor- 
tunately this  proved  to  be  one  of  the  few  im- 
portant endeavors  of  Mr.  Letchworth  which 
did  not  attain  success. 

In  1892  President  Craig  and  Commissioners 
Letchworth  and  Walrath  formed  a  committee 
of  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  appointed  under 
an  act  of  the  legislature,  to  select  a  site  "  on 
which  to  establish  an  institution,  on  the  colony 
plan,  for  the  medical  treatment,  care,  education, 
and  employment  of  epileptics."  This  was  a  sub- 
ject which  had  now  become  deeply  interesting 
to  Mr.  Letchworth,  and  it  gave  direction  to  the 
most  important  of  his  subsequent  work.  What  he 
did  in  behalf  of  the  epileptic,  as  formerly  in  behalf 
of  the  insane,  will  be  told  in  the  next  chapter. 

The  term  of  Commissioner  Letchworth's  re- 
appointment in  1885  having  expired   pou^th  ap- 
in  1893,  he  received  on  the  i6th  of  pointment 
January  in  that  year  his  fourth  con-   ontheBoard 
secutive  appointment    to  the  State    Board    of 
Charities,  from  Governor  Flower. 


3i8     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

A  little  later,  on  the  9th  of  February,  a  mark 
of  distinction  so  high  that  few  have  ever  re- 
Degree  of  ceived  it  came  to  him  from  the  Uni- 
LL.D.  from    versity  of  the  State  of  New  York, 

sity  of^the^'  ^^  ^°^^  °^  ^^^  Regents  of  the  Uni- 
state  of  versity,  conferring  on  him  the  de- 
New  York  gj.^^  ^f  LL.D.,  "  in  recognition  of 
his  distinguished  services  to  the  State  of  New 
York,  as  a  member  and  president  of  the  State 
Board  of  Charities  and  as  an  author  of  most 
valuable  literature  pertaining  to  the  dependent 
classes."  In  the  one  hundred  and  ten  years  of 
its  existence  at  that  date  the  Board  of  Regents 
had  conferred  this  honorary  degree  only  twenty 
times,  and  always  after  long  preliminary  notice 
of  intention  and  on  the  unanimously  favorable 
report  of  an  inquiring  committee.  Not  many 
titular  honors  have  been  guarded  so  jealously, — 
dispensed  so  sparingly;  but  all  voices  acclaimed 
the  justice  and  applauded  the  propriety  of 
this  award  of  it. 

In  the  honors  of  the  year,  however,  there 
was  no  medicine  for  the  sore  affliction  that  be- 
fel  him  on  the  23d  of  November,  when  Mrs. 
Edward  H.  Crozer,  his  eldest  sister,  died.  She 
had  been  his  companion  at  Glen  Iris, —  the 
presiding  genius  of  his  home,  —  for  many  years, 
and  her  death  was  not  only   the  wounding  of 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  319 

tender  affections,  but  a  grave  dislocation  of  his 
life.  A  tablet  to  Mrs.  Crozer's  memory  was 
placed  by  Mr.  Letchworth  in  the  vestibule  of 
the  new  building  then  being  erected  for  the 
Women's  Educational  and  Industrial  Union, 
at  Buffalo,  and  unveiled  on  the  day  of  the 
opening  of  the  building,  October  29,  1894. 
Mrs.  Crozer  had  been  a  member  of  the  Union 
and  much  interested  in  its  work. 

The  presidency  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
became  vacant  in  1894,  on  the  death  of  Com- 
missioner Oscar  Craig,  and  was  filled  by  the 
election  of  Mr.  William  Rhinelander  Stewart,  of 
the  City  of  New  York,  who  had  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Board  since  1883.  Mr.  Letchworth 
was  engaged  that  year,  with  Dr.  Stephen  Smith, 
in  the  examination  of  plans  and  estimates  for 
the  development  of  the  institution  which  the 
state  had  undertaken  to  establish  for  the  treat- 
ment of  epileptics,  and  to  which  the  name  of 
Craig  Colony  had  been  given.  Ill  health  in  the 
early  months  of  1895  not  only  interrupted  the 
preparation  of  a  paper  that  he  had  promised 
for  the  next  National  Conference  of  Charities 
and  Correction,  but  detained  him  from  the  meet- 
ing, in  May.  He  had  missed  very  few  of  these 
important  meetings  since  he  entered  the  New 
York  State  Board  of  Charities. 


320     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

In  these  final  years  of  his  official  service  Mr. 
Letchworth  became  deeply  interested  in  the  in- 
troduction of  the  rain-bath,  or  shower-bath, 
into  various  public  institutions,  most  especially 
into  poorhouses,  to  replace  the  uncleanly  and 
unsanitary  tub-bathing  practised  commonly  in 
such  places,  so  far  as  bathing  might  be  practised 
systematically  at  all.  He  gave  the  subject  much 
investigation,  and  gathered  a  quantity  of  prac- 
tical information  as  to  the  best  modes  of  con- 
struction and  arrangement  for  it,  which  he  put 
in  form  for  communication  to  the  officials  whose 
interest  in  an  improvement  of  such  great  impor- 
tance might  be  enlisted.  None  of  this  seems  to 
have  gone  into  print,  but  it  was  used,  no  doubt, 
in  personal  ways,  of  correspondence  and  other- 
wise, and  remains  in  manuscript  form. 

The  year  1896  was  his  last  in  the  service  of 

the  state,  though  his  enlistment  in  the  service 

T    .  of  suffering  humanity  did  not  end  till 

Last  year  o  •' 

of  official  his  death.  Age  and  unsparing  labors 
service  were   beginning   to   wear  down   the 

energy  of  spirit  which  had  replaced  in  him  so 
much  of  the  lack  of  a  vigorous  constitution. 
He  was  forced,  no  doubt,  to  feel  that  he  must 
lighten  his  cares  and  his  tasks.  He  declined  the 
invitation  to  prepare  a  paper  for  presentation  to 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  321 

an  International  Congress  for  Children  which 
met  in  1896  ;  but  he  wrote  for  the  State  Board 
of  Charities  an  extended  report  on  the  "  Erie 
County  System  of  Placing  Dependent  Children 
in  Families,"  which  has  been  quoted  from  in  a 
previous  chapter ;  he  made  and  reported  his 
final  inspection  of  poorhouses  in  his  district; 
and  he  took  part  in  the  preparation  of  a  report  by 
the  standing  committee  of  the  Board  on  Craig 
Colony  for  Epileptics.  To  this  latter  report 
was  appended  the  following  note,  signed  by  the 
two  colleagues  of  Mr.  Letchworth  on  the  com- 
mittee, Dr.  Enoch  V.  Stoddard  and  Peter  Wal- 
rath:  "Immediately  subsequent  to  the  comple- 
tion of  this  report.  Commissioner  Letchworth, 
feeling  compelled  to  lay  down  the  work  which 
he  had  followed  during  so  many  years  and  with 
such  distinction,  tendered  his  resignation  to  the 
governor  and  severed  his  relations  with  colleagues 
who  part  with  him  with  the  deepest  regret." 
His  resignation  had    been   tendered  to    the 

Governor  on  the  14th  of  November. 

T-u  •  r    1      o  TT.         ,    Resignation 

1  he  next  meetmg  or  the  State  Board  from  the 

of  Charities  was  held  on  the  8th  of    State  Board 
December  following,  and  it  then  re- 
ceived from    him   a   letter  announcing  it  and 
making  known  in  these  words  his  reasons  for 


322     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

withdrawing  from  the  service  he  had  performed 
so  long :  — 

While  grateful  for  a  degree  of  health  and  strength 
that  would  permit  me  to  continue  in  the  discharge  of 
my  duties,  and  duly  regretting  the  severance  of  my 
official  relations  with  the  Board,  I  nevertheless  feel 
that  my  private  affairs,  which  have  long  suffered  for 
lack  of  my  personal  supervision,  now  demand  more 
attention  than  the  proper  discharge  of  the  duties  de- 
volving upon  me  as  a  commissioner  will  permit.  I  was 
first  appointed  a  commissioner  by  Governor  Dix,  in 
April,  1873,  and  was  reappointed  successively  by 
Governors  Robinson,  Hill,  and  Flower,  the  last  ap- 
pointment expiring  in  March,  1901. 

He  then  reverted  briefly  to  the  great  improve- 
ments made  within  the  past  quarter  of  a  century 
in  the  public  care  and  treatment  of  the  depend- 
ent and  offending  classes,  and  congratulated 
the  State  Board  of  Charities  on  its  agency  in 
the  promotion  of  these  advances.  Also  on  the 
wider  field  now  opened  to  it  under  the  powers 
granted  to  it  by  the  new  constitution.  In  con- 
clusion he  expressed  his  grateful  sense  of  the 
uniformly  harmonious  relations  that  had  existed 
between  himself  and  his  colleagues  and  the 
unnumbered  kindnesses  and  courtesies  he  had 
received  at  their  hands. 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  323 

The  feeling  of  the  Board,  as  expressed  in  its 
published  records,  went  beyond  a  mere  utterance 
of  regret,  to  pay  this  tribute  :  — 

Entering  into  this  office  well  equipped  by  nature  and 
research  for  the  efficient  discharge  of  his  duties,  Mr. 
Letchworth  has,  without  remuneration,  devoted  the 
maturer  years  of  his  life  to  the  amelioration  of  the 
condition  of  the  suffering,  unfortunate,  and  dependent 
classes  in  the  State  of  New  York.  Every  branch  of  the 
work  devolving  upon  the  State  Board  of  Charities  has 
felt  the  uplifting  impulse  of  his  wise  and  persistent 
efforts.  The  insane,  the  poor  in  county  houses,  the 
blind,  the  orphan  and  destitute  children,  the  juvenile 
delinquents  are  all  now  more  intelligently  and  hu- 
manely cared  for  in  consequence  of  his  initiation  and 
unfailing  and  practical  support  of  measures  instituted 
for  their  relief. 

By  his  conservative  and  painstaking  discharge  of 
official  duties  and  intelligent  application  thereto  of  his 
wide  sociological  knowledge,  Mr.  Letchworth  early 
won  and  has  steadily  retained  the  confidence  and  re- 
spect of  the  people  of  the  state.  These  qualifications 
also  led  to  his  successive  annual  elections  to  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Board  for  the  period  of  ten  years  from 
1878  to  1887.  During  this  whole  period  his  disregard 
of  all  selfish  ambition  and  his  many  lovely  qualities  of 
heart  and  mind  have  gained  for  him  the  affection  and 
esteem  of  his  colleagues  and  hosts  of  friends. 


324     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

By  his  resignation  the  people  of  the  State  of  New 
York  have  lost  the  services  of  a  tried  and  useful  official, 
and  the  State  Board  of  Charities  the  assistance  and 
advice  of  one  of  its  most  valued  members.  Into  the 
retirement  which  he  has  sought  our  earnest  wishes  for 
his  future  happiness  accompany  him. 

More  significant  than  this  formulated  ex- 
pression of  feeling  by  the  Board  on  parting  com- 
pany with  its  senior  member  were  the  remarks 
made  on  the  occasion  by  some  of  its  members. 
These,  for  example,  by  Commissioner  Dr. 
Stephen  Smith:  — 

Mr.  President:  My  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  extends  over  a  period  of  fifteen  years,  or  from 
the  date  of  my  first  entrance  into  this  Board,  in  1881. 
I  recall  gratefully  the  kind  and  sympathetic  words 
with  which  he,  as  president,  welcomed  me  to  a  mem- 
bership with  this  body.  I  early  recognized  his  large 
and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  every  phase  of  pub- 
lic charities  and  his  eminently  judicious  and  conserv- 
ative views  of  their  administration.  From  him,  there- 
fore, I  was  accustomed  to  seek  that  information 
necessary  to  the  proper  performance  of  my  duties, 
and  I  take  great  pleasure  in  acknowledging  my  obli- 
gations to  him  for  whatever  useful  work  I  have 
accomplished  among  the  charities  of  the  state.  His 
fraternal  counsels  were  always  inspirations  to  greater 
efforts  to  do  better  and  still  better  service,  and  to  fre- 


WORK  FOR  THE  INSANE  325 

quent  aspirations  to  attain  to  that  high  plane  of  con- 
secration to  the  relief  of  human  infirmities  which  he 
had  reached.  .  .  .  The  vast  reforms  in  our  public 
charities  during  the  last  thirty  years  have  been  effected 
with  his  cooperation  and  often  with  his  initiation. 
The  annual  reports  of  the  Board  abound  with  most 
valuable  contributions  by  him  to  nearly  every  branch 
of  private  and  public  charity.  In  the  wider  field  of 
philanthropy  represented  by  the  National  Conference 
of  Charities,  Mr.  Letchworth  has  won  a  national  repu- 
tation, as  one  of  the  foremost  reformers  of  the  methods 
of  dealing  with  the  dependent,  defective,  and  criminal 
classes.  But  it  is  probable  that  in  the  distant  future 
his  great  work  on  Hospitals  will  prove  to  be  the  most 
enduring  monument  of  his  self-sacrificing  service  in 
the  cause  of  humanity.  In  the  retirement  of  Mr. 
Letchworth  from  this  Board  we  have  lost  a  congenial 
companion  and  a  wise  counsellor,  and  the  state  an 
honest  and  most  efficient  public  official. 

In  anticipation,  perhaps,  of  his  retirement, 
which  may  have  been  intimated  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year,  a  letter  requesting  his  portrait  had 
been  signed  in  the  previous  February  by  all  the 
members  of  the  Board. 

Not  only  in  the  State  of  New  York,  but 
widely  through  the  country,  the  retirement  of 
Mr.  Letchworth  from  his  long  official  labors 
for  the   bettering  of  the  institutions  of  public 


326     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

philanthropy  was  recognized  as  an  event  of  pub- 
lic importance.  "  He  is,  perhaps,"  said  the  New 
York  Tribune^  "  more  widely  known  in  this 
country  and  Europe  in  connection  with  his  spe- 
cial work  than  any  other  living  American,  and 
might  be  fairly  called  the  Lord  Shaftesbury 
of  the  United  States."  The  same  journal  re- 
marked: "  It  is  intimated  that,  in  consideration 
of  his  long  and  useful  public  service,  Governor 
Morton  allowed  Mr.  Letchworth  to  suggest 
the  name  of  his  successor."  The  successor  ap- 
pointed was  Mr.  Harvey  W.  Putnam,  a  young 
lawyer  of  Buffalo. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

WORK    FOR    THE    EPILEPTIC 

After  Mr.  Letchworth's  withdrawal  from  the 
service  of  the  state  there  were  years  of  work 
in  his  life,  performed  in  the  same  field.  He  had 
surrendered  official  authority,  but  needed  none 
to  maintain  the  power  of  influence  with  which 
he  could  still  labor  for  the  unfortunates  of  man- 
kind who  need  public  care.  He  was  released 
from  tasks  of  supervision  and  inspection  which 
had  occupied  great  parts  of  his  time,  and  could 
devote  himself  more  to  studies  and  discussions 
of  the  large  problems  of  public  philanthropy, 
where  his  long  experience,  his  wide  knowledge, 
his  well-trained  good  judgment,  could  be  exer- 
cised more  usefully  than  on  the  mere  scrutiny 
and  criticism  of  particular  institutions.  He  was 
now  in  the  position  which  his  friend  Johnston 
had  long  urged  him  to  assume.  Several  years 
before  this  time,  Mr.  Johnston,  in  a  letter,  had 
said  to  him  with  eloquent  earnestness:  "You 
have  accomplished  nearly  all  you  can  accomplish 
in  New  York  State.  Your  ideas  have  been  be- 


328     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

fore  the  people  nearly  a  score  of  years.  A  good 
deal  has  been  done,  and  what  has  been  done  is 
an  incentive  and  teaching  to  others,  and  the 
work  will  go  on.  But  there  is  a  continent  — 
yes,  a  hemisphere  —  in  which  you  can  work  (I 
might  have  said  a  world)  and  where  germs  of 
reform  planted  would  in  time  give  seed  enough 
for  great  harvests.  These  continents  are  the 
fields  into  which  you  should  carry  your  work. 
It  matters  something  if  five  hundred  paupers 
are  more  healthily,  comfortably,  economically 
housed  ;  but  it  matters  much  more  if  some  new 
state  officials  are  taught  how  to  save  the  young 
or  to  care  for  the  insane.  How  I  do  wish  that 
you  would  give  the  balance  of  your  life  to  in- 
troducing your  ideas  more  widely  into  places 
where  they  would  be  helpful." 

He  recognized  the  wisdom  of  this  counsel ; 
but  the  ties  of  his  long  connection  with  the 
state  service  were  undoubtedly  hard  to  break,  and 
difficulties  were  in  the  breaking  which  others 
could  not  know.  The  severance,  however,  had 
now  been  accomplished,  and  William  Pryor 
Letchworth,  Doctor  of  Laws  by  the  pronounce- 
ment of  the  highest  organ  of  the  academic 
authority  of  the  state,  was  free  from  the  routine 
of  official  duty  which  may,  perhaps,  have  en- 


DEH-GA-YA-SAH 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC        329 

grossed  too  much  of  the  time  of  Commissioner 
Letchworth  of  the  State  Board.  Now  that  he 
had  been  divested  of  his  official  title  it  would 
be  strictly  proper,  no  doubt,  to  affix  the  honor- 
ary title  to  his  name,  and  to  speak  of  him  as 
Dr.  Letchworth  throughout  the  remainder  of 
this  book.  To  do  so,  however,  would  seem  like 
the  introduction  of  a  stranger  into  the  narrative, 
and  the  writer  feels  that  it  is  best  to  speak  of 
Mr.  Letchworth  still,  in  the  old  familiar  way. 

The  most  important  labors  of  the  later  years 
of  Mr.  Letchworth  were  in  behalf  of  the  vic- 
tims of  epilepsy,  —  a  large  class  of  pjtiable 
pitiful  sufferers  who  had  experienced,  state  of  the 
in  our  country  especially,  more  and  ^P^^^P^ic 
longer  neglect  than  any  other  whose  affliction 
appealed  as  painfully  to  the  sympathies  of  their 
fellow  men.  In  one  of  his  writings  on  the  sub- 
ject he  has  depicted  most  graphically  the  situa- 
tion which  makes  this  appeal :  — 

The  epileptic  [he  wrote]  holds  an  anomalous  posi- 
tion in  society.  As  a  child  he  is  an  object  of  solicitude 
to  his  parents  or  guardians.  The  street  to  him  is  full 
of  danger,  and  if  sent  to  school  he  is  liable  to  seizures 
on  the  way  or  in  the  classroom.  At  school  his  attacks 
shock  his  classmates  and  create  confusion.  He  cannot 
attend  church  or  public  entertainments,  nor  participate 


330     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

in  social  gatherings  with  those  of  his  own  age  and  sta- 
tion. In  consequence  of  his  infirmity,  the  epileptic 
grows  up  in  idleness  and  ignorance,  bereft  of  com- 
panionship outside  of  the  family,  and,  friendless,  he 
silently  broods  over  his  isolated  and  helpless  condi- 
tion. If  the  epileptic  succeeds  in  learning  a  trade, 
business  men  are  reluctant  to  employ  him,  and  arti- 
sans will  not  work  with  him,  especially  if  sharp-edged 
tools  are  used.  ...  In  such  cases  there  is  but  one 
result,  —  the  breaking  down  of  all  hope  and  energy. 
The  epileptic  workman  having  a  trade,  but  unable  to 
find  employment,  gradually  sinks  into  a  condition  of 
public  dependence.  Frequently  he  is  sent  to  the  poor- 
house  .  .  .  where  there  is  no  special  provision  for 
his  care  or  proper  medical  treatment.  Here  he  is  re- 
garded with  aversion  and  distrust,  and  is  a  cause  of 
unhappiness  and  sometimes  of  danger  to  others.  Not 
infrequently  the  wrong  is  committed  of  sending  him 
to  an  insane  asylum. 

With  this  description  of  the  wretched  situa- 
tion of  the  sufferers  from  epilepsy  went  an  esti- 

,T  1  X  •  mateoftheir  numbers,  which  assigned 
Neglect  in  _  »  & 

the  United  considerably  more  than  100,000  to 
States  |.}^g  United  States,  for  only  a  small 

fraction  of  whom  had  any  provision  been  made, 
when  this  was  written,  of  such  care  as  they  need. 
England  and  the  United  States  had  both  been 
slow  in  recognizing  their  claim  to  special  insti- 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       331 

tutlons  for  treatment  and  maintenance,  while 
some  countries  of  Continental  Europe  had  seen 
and  accepted  the  duty  long  ago.  Apparently  It 
was  not  until  1868  that  official  attention  was 
given  to  the  subject  in  any  American  state.  In 
that  year  the  Ohio  State  Board  of  Charities  re- 
commended to  the  legislature  of  that  state  some 
better  provision  for  the  epileptics  in  the  poor- 
houses  ;  and  in  the  next  year  it  repeated  the 
recommendation  more  urgently  and  with  a  defi- 
nite plan,  proposing  a  distinct  asylum,  with  an 
ample  farm,  on  which  the  inmates  could  be 
employed.  The  legislature  was  deaf  to  this 
counsel,  renewed  again  and  again,  until  1877, 
when  it  made  a  beginning  of  action  which, 
finally,  in  1893,  brought  into  existence  the 
Ohio  Hospital  for  Epileptics,  at  Gallipolis, — 
the  first  to  be  opened  in  the  United  States. 

The  next  state  to  acknowledge  its  duty  to 
the  epileptics  was  New  York.  In  the  first  re- 
port (1874)  of  its  first  Commissioner  in  Lunacy, 
Dr.  John  Ordronaux,  he  called  attention  to  the 
fact  that  four  hundred  and  thirty-six  epileptics 
were  being  improperly  kept  in  the  lunatic  asy- 
lums and  poorhouses  of  the  state,  and  declared 
to  the  legislature  that  "  a  state  hospital  for  epi- 
leptics is  an  imperative   necessity."    In   eight 


332     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

succeeding  annual  reports  he  continued  the  ad- 
monition without  effect;  and  the  appeal  was 
taken  up  by  the  State  Board  of  Charities  with 
no  better  result.  According  to  Mr.  Letchworth, 
who  became  the  historian  of  the  reform,  "in 
seeking  for  the  germs  of  the  movement  for  col- 
onizing epileptics  in  this  country  we  must  look 
in  another  direction.  Dr.  Frederick  Peterson, 
while  assistant  physician  of  the  Hudson  River 
State  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  had  a  consider- 
able number  of  epileptics  under  his  charge,  and 
became  specially  interested  in  the  treatment  of 
this  class.  In  1886,  in  pursuance  of  their  inter- 
ests, he  visited  the  colony  for  epileptics  at  Biele- 
feld, in  Westphalia,  of  which  little,  if  anything, 
was  known  in  this  country.  After  his  return 
home  he  wrote  a  full  description  of  this  peculiar 
and  highly  successful  work,  which  was  published 
in  the  ^^^nXox^l  Medical  Record  in  April,  1887. 
The  article  attracted  much  attention  and  was 
republished  in  England.  Dr.  Peterson,  in  his 
zeal,  continued  to  write  upon  the  subject  for 
medical  and  other  journals,  and  his  whole-souled 
devotion  to  the  cause  he  had  espoused  laid  broad 
and  deep  in  the  public  mind  the  conviction  that 
a  state  colony  for  epileptics  was  an  immediate 
and  pressing  necessity.   He  presented  the  sub- 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC        333 

ject  in  charity  conference  meetings,  at  state  con- 
ventions of  superintendents  of  the  poor,  and 
elsewhere.  He  also  urged  the  matter  upon  the 
attention  of  the  State  Charities  Aid  Association." 
An  attempt  in  1890  to  obtain  legislation  in 
New  York,  providing  for  the  selection  of  a 
site  for  the  desired  colony,  came  to  p.^.^^  j^^^g. 
naught;  but  in  1892  it  had  success,  ment  in 
A  bill  prepared  by  the  State  Chari-  New  York 
ties  Aid  Association  and  introduced  on  its  re- 
quest, directing  the  commissioners  of  the  State 
Board  of  Charities  to  select  a  suitable  site  for 
the  purpose  stated,  became  law.  As  mentioned 
in  the  preceding  chapter,  the  State  Board  dele- 
gated the  duty  of  making  this  important  selec- 
tion to  a  committee  composed  of  its  president, 
Mr.  Craig,  and  commissioners  Letchworth  and 
Walrath.  The  committee  was  not  only  to  in- 
spect sites,  but  to  examine  plans  and  ascertain 
facts  "  relative  and  important  to  the  object  of 
the  statute,  namely,  the  establishment  in  a  proper 
situation,  with  a  proper  organization,  of  a  colony 
for  epileptics."  Many  sites  were  proposed,  and 
the  members  of  the  committee,  either  collect- 
ively or  separately,  spent  a  large  part  of  the 
summer  of  1892.  in  examining  tracts  of  land 
and  collecting  desired  information.   But  singu- 


334     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

larly  favoring  circumstances  offered  one  piece 
of  property  to  them  which  had  so  incomparable 
a  superiority  to  every  other,  in  advantages  of 
every  kind,  that  the  selection  was  easily  made 
and  put  quite  beyond  reasonable  dispute. 

It  was  in  the  beautiful  Genesee  Valley,  near 
Mount  Morris,  —  the  seat  of  a  settlement  of 
The  Shaker  ^^^  religious  people  known  corn- 
settlement  monly  as  Shakers,  but  named  by 
of  Sonyea  themselves  the  United  Society  of 
Christian  Believers.  They  occupied  a  large 
tract  (eighteen  hundred  acres)  of  very  valuable 
land,  on  the  site  of  an  old  Indian  village  which 
bore  the  name  of  Sonyea,  the  name  signifying 
a  "sunny  or  warm  place."  They  had  erected 
many  buildings  that  would  be  more  or  less 
readily  convertible  to  immediate  use  for  the 
contemplated  epileptic  colony.  "  One  of  the 
original  purposes  of  the  society  was  to  receive 
and  maintain  orphan  children,  some  of  whom 
would  take  the  place  of  deceased  members;  but 
the  multiplication  of  institutions  for  homeless 
children  in  Western  New  York  stood  in  the  way 
of  thus  increasing  their  numbers,  which  their 
practice  of  celibacy  also  restricted.  The  mem- 
bers were  mostly  advanced  in  years,  and,  as  their 
numbers  were  gradually  but  surely  diminishing, 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC        335 

they  decided  to  sell  their  home  at  Sonyea  and 
unite  their  fortunes  with  a  similar  society  at 
Watervliet,  New  York."  They  could  have  sold 
the  splendid  property  in  parcels  very  readily 
and  with  much  pecuniary  gain  ;  but  they  wished 
it  to  go  as  a  whole  to  a  charitable  use,  and 
offered  it  at  a  moderate  price.  The  State  Board 
of  Charities  adopted  the  report  of  its  committee 
recommending  the  purchase  of  the  Sonyea  do- 
main ;  a  bill  which  authorized  and  made  the 
needed  provision  for  carrying  out  the  recom- 
mendation passed  the  legislature  of  1893  5  ^^^> 
to  the  consternation  and  disheartenment  of  a 
multitude  of  citizens,  it  was  vetoed  by  Gov- 
ernor Flower,  on  the  ground  that  the  state 
could  not  afford  the  expenditure,  and  that  some 
particulars  of  the  plan  of  government  of  the 
intended  colony  did  not  meet  his  approval. 
Fortunately  the  rare  opportunity  which  the 
Shakers  of  Sonyea  had  offered  was  not  thrown 
away  by  this,  as  it  might  easily  have  been. 
They  gave  a  new  option,  and  a  modified  en- 
actment, pressed  by  a  strong  public  sentiment 
on  the  legislature  and  the  Governor  in  1894, 
was  secured  in  April  of  that  year.  The  general 
design  of  the  institution  authorized  was  set 
forth  in  the  following  language  of  the  act :  — 


336     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

The  objects  of  such  colony  shall  be  to  secure  the 
humane,  curative,  scientific,  and  economical  treat- 
ment and  care  of  epileptics,  exclusive  of  insane  epi- 
leptics, to  fulfil  which  design  there  shall  be  provided, 
among  other  things,  a  tract  of  fertile  and  productive 
land,  in  a  healthful  situation,  and  an  abundant  supply 
of  wholesome  water,  sufficient  means  for  drainage  and 
disposal  of  sewage,  and  sanitary  conditions  ;  and  there 
shall  be  furnished,  among  other  necessary  structures, 
cottages  for  dormitory  and  domiciliary  uses,  buildings 
for  an  infirmary,  a  schoolhouse  and  a  chapel,  work- 
shops for  the  proper  teaching  and  productive  prosecu- 
tion of  trades  and  industries ;  all  of  which  structures 
shall  be  substantial  and  attractive,  but  plain  and  mod- 
erate in  cost,  and  arranged  on  the  colony  or  village 
plan. 

To  an  extraordinary  extent  this  design  was 
fulfilled  at  once  by  the  mere  purchase  of  the 
Craig  Col-  Sonyea  domain.  Fertility  of  soil, 
ony  estab-  healthfulness  of  situation,  abundance 
hshed  ^j^j   purity  of  water,   easy  drainage 

and  sewerage,  all  went  with  the  land ;  and  there 
went  also  thirty  buildings  of  various  kinds, 
which  were  estimated  in  value  by  Commissioner 
Letchworth  and  an  architect,  before  the  pur- 
chase was  made,  at  ^75,000.  The  state  appro- 
priation for  the  purchase  of  the  whole  property 
was  $  1 1 5,000.   The  largest  of  the  buildings  then 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       337 

on  the  ground  —  a  massive  brick  structure  — 
underwent  ready  conversion  into  a  dormitory 
which  accommodates  one  hundred  and  thirty 
female  patients,  and  is  named  Letchworth 
House.  There  was  much  at  the  place,  it  can 
be  seen,  to  facilitate  the  preparation  of  it  for  its 
humane  use,  and  the  preparation  went  rapidly 
on.  Dr.  William  P.  Spratling,  previously  first 
assistant  physician  at  the  Morristown,  New 
Jersey,  State  Hospital  for  the  Insane,  was  chosen 
for  superintendent  of  the  colony,  by  competitive 
examination,  under  the  civil  service  system  of 
New  York.  He  received  his  appointment  in 
November,  1894,  beginning  duty  in  the  follow- 
ing May,  having  visited,  meantime,  the  famous 
Bethel  Colony  for  Epileptics,  at  Bielefeld,  Ger- 
many, to  study  methods  and  arrangements 
there.  Dr.  Spratling  had  already  made  special 
studies  of  epilepsy,  and  he  received  the  highest 
marking  in  the  examination.  The  colony  was 
in  readiness  to  begin  receiving  patients  and  was 
formally  opened  on  the  20th  of  January,  1896. 
It  had  been  named  Craig  Colony,  in  memory 
of  the  late  president  of  the  State  Board  of 
Charities,  who  died  on  the  2d  of  January,  1894. 
A  documentary  history  of  the  whole  course 
of  proceedings  connected  with  the  founding  of 


338     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

this  first  colony  for  epileptics  in  the  State  of  New 

York  was  compiled  by  Mr.  Letchworth  in  his 

„  ,  ,  ^  last  years.  The  record  shows  him 
Mr.  Letch-  .  .     . 

worth's  in-    quite    distmctly    to    have    been   the 

terest  in  persisting  spirit  in  the  movement, 
the  colony         ,  ,  .... 

throughout;    prickmg    it    to   action 

when  it  lagged,  and  rousing  it  to  fresh  aggres- 
siveness when  it  had  been  stricken  with  discour- 
agement by  the  Governor's  veto  in  1892.  Until 
some  months  after  its  opening  he  was  in  official 
relations  to  the  colony,  first  as  chairman  of  the 
Standing  Committee  of  the  State  Board  of  Chari- 
ties on  the  Construction  of  Buildings  for  Chari- 
table and  Correctional  Institutions,  and  finally  as 
a  member  of  the  special  new  Committee  of  the 
Board  on  Craig  Colony.  The  duties  of  the  first- 
named  committee  brought  him  into  cooperation 
with  Dr.  Frederick  Peterson,  who  had  been  made 
president  of  the  board  of  managers  of  the  col- 
ony, and  Mrs.  Charles  F.  Wadsworth,  chair- 
man of  the  executive  committee  of  that  board, 
in  studying  and  determining  plans  for  utilizing 
the  buildings  already  in  place  on  the  estate,  and 
for  the  new  buildings  which  would  need  to  be 
provided  at  once.  The  report  of  this  work,  by 
himself  and  Dr.  Stephen  Smith,  was  made  to 
the  Board  in  January,  1895.  '^^^  report  of  the 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       339 

later  committee,  made  on  the  13th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1896,  was  Commissioner  Letchworth's  last 
official  act.  It  recorded  the  experience  of  the 
institution  in  the  first  ten  months  of  its  opera- 
tion. The  comparatively  small  number  of  pa- 
tients thus  far  admitted  had  been  selected  from 
the  various  institutions  of  the  state  by  Superin- 
tendent Dr.  Spratling,  assisted  by  Dr.  Hoyt, 
secretary  of  the  State  Board.  The  report,  in  its 
conclusion,  expressed  congratulations  to  the 
managers  of  the  colony  "upon  the  very  satis- 
factory results  accomplished  in  the  face  of  so 
many  difficulties." 

As  Mr.  Letchworth's  interest  in  Craig  Col- 
ony was  not  of  the  mere  functional  kind  it  did 
not  expire  when  his  official  commis-  continued 
sion  was  resigned ;  nor  was  he  allowed  work  for  the 
to  drop  out  of  its  affairs.  His  private  ®P' ®P  ^^ 
correspondence  shows  how  much  he  continued 
to  be  counselled  with  by  those  in  charge  of  its 
work;  how  often  his  visits  to  it  were  solicited 
and  how  welcome  they  were.  But  his  sense  of 
duty  to  the  victims  of  epilepsy  was  far  from 
satisfied  by  what  had  been  done  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  this  one  institution  bv  his  own  state. 
It  was  the  second  of  its  kind  in  the  whole 
country.   Massachusetts  had  been  giving  good 


340     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

treatment  and  care  to  a  number  of  epileptic 
children, in  a  group  of  cottage  hospitals  at  Bald- 
winsville,  established  by  private  benevolence  in 
1882,  but  maintained  latterly  by  the  state;  and 
the  state  had  taken  action  in  1895  ^7  conse- 
quence of  which  a  general  hospital  for  epileptics 
was  in  process  of  creation.  In  a  few  other  states 
there  were  movements  on  foot  which  promised 
some  adequate  provision  for  this  afflicted  class ; 
and  in  a  somewhat  larger  number  there  was 
more  or  less  of  imperfect  provision  for  it  in 
private  institutions  or  in  improper  connection 
with  asylums  for  the  feeble-minded.  But  in- 
quiries pursued  by  Mr.  Letchworth  in  all  parts 
of  the  country  found  practically  nothing  done 
for  epileptics  in  a  large  majority  of  the  states, 
or  nothing  that  was  fitting  to  their  case.  He 
recognized,  therefore,  an  extremely  urgent  need 
of  information  to  the  public  of  the  nation,  as  to 
the  dreadful  extent  of  this  neglect,  and  what  it 
meant  of  suffering  to  thousands  of  individuals 
and  of  grave  consequences  to  society  at  large. 
The  situation  was  one  of  which  few  people, 
even  in  the  medical  profession,  appear  to  have 
had  clear  knowledge.  The  facts  of  it  had  never 
been  gathered  up  and  put  forth  collectively,  in 
a  form   to   be  impressive  in  effect.   He  deter- 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       341 

mined  now  to  take  on  himself  the  task  of  as- 
sembhng  this  needed  information  from  its  many 
sources,  printed  and  unprinted,  and  making  it 
available  for  use  in  stirring  public  feeling  on 
the  subject.  He  had  done  something  in  that 
direction  already,  as  set  forth  in  two  papers  pre- 
pared for  the  National  Conference  of  Charities 
and  Correction,  —  on  "Provision  for  Epilep- 
tics," read  at  Nashville  in  1894,  and  on  "Care 
of  Epileptics,"  read  at  Grand  Rapids  in  1896. 
He  now  undertook  a  work  of  thoroughness  on 
the  lines  that  were  sketched  in  those  essays. 

He  entered  deeply  into  this  new  task  soon 
after  his  release  from  the  State  Board  of  Chari- 
ties, and,  while  turning  frequently  to 

,  *  .  f .       ^  .         ^         Facts  and 

other  matters,  it  was  his  main  occu-   studies  em- 

pation  until  its  completion,  late  in  bodied  in  a 
1899.  By  laborious  correspondence 
he  drew  from  officials  and  professional  men, 
from  governments  and  from  institutions,  in  re- 
ports and  other  documents  or  in  personal  let- 
ters, the  information  and  the  expert  opinion 
that  went  into  his  book.  He  was  attempting  no 
original  treatise,  but  simply  producing  as  au- 
thentic and  complete  a  compilation  as  could  be 
made  of  the  knowledge  and  experience  of  that 
time  in  the  matter  of  the  care  and  treatment  of 


342     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

epileptics.  He  was  preparing  a  book  which  Mr. 
O'Conor,  of  the  Rochester  Post-Express^  char- 
acterized subsequently,  at  the  close  of  three 
columns  of  review,  as  "a  complete  history  of 
the  care  and  treatment  of  epileptics  —  a  hand- 
book of  all  that  had  been  done  in  their  behalf," 
and  he  "spared  no  pains  in  collecting  inform- 
ation or  in  putting  it  into  convenient  shape  for 
instruction  or  for  reference."  His  inquiries  ex- 
tended to  many  foreign  countries,  as  well  as  to 
all  the  states  of  the  American  Union,  The  re- 
sult was  a  mass  of  information  which  men  of 
scientific  light  and  leading  in  the  medical  pro- 
fession hailed  with  grateful  satisfaction.  In  this 
work,  as  in  the  preparation  of  the  volume  on 
"The  Insane  in  Foreign  Countries,"  he  had 
much  and  very  valuable  assistance  from  his 
friend,  James  Nicol  Johnston,  as  well  as  from 
Miss  Bishop,  his  secretary. 

The  book,  entitled  "  Care  and  Treatment  of 
Epileptics,"  was  published  in  the  same  admir- 
able style  as  that  of  "The  Insane  in  Foreign 
Countries,"  with  appropriate  and  interesting  il- 
lustrations, by  the  Messrs.  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons, 
New  York  and  London,  early  in  1900.  Re- 
views of  it  in  the  medical  journals  at  home  and 
abroad    were    universally    commendatory.     In 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       343 

Brain,  the  organ  of  the  Neurological  Society  of 
London,  Dr.  William  Aldren  Turner  gave  an 
extended  account  of  its  contents  and  a  discus- 
sion of  the  colony  system  of  epileptic  treatment 
as  presented  in  them.  The  work,  it  said,  "gives 
a  complete  account  of  the  epileptic  colonies  in 
Europe  and  America,  and  a  valuable  chapter 
upon  the  general  principles  which  should  guide 
those  more  immediately  concerned  in  the  de- 
velopment and  management  of  such  institu- 
tions. The  work  has  required  an  immense 
amount  of  investigation  and  care  in  its  con- 
struction." 

In  the  Bulletin  of  the  Medical  Society  oj  Bel- 
gium the  book  was  even  more  fully  described 
and  discussed.  "All  who  desire  to  study  seri- 
ously the  hospitalization  of  epileptics,"  said  the 
writer,  "will  find  in  this  large  volume,  contain- 
ing a  mass  of  beautiful  views  and  phototyped 
plans,  much  information  that  one  would  vainly 
seek  elsewhere.  It  is  on  this  account  that  we 
have  endeavored  to  make  known  the  fine  work 
of  the  great  philanthropist,  Mr.  Letchworth." 

One  of  the  first  books  of  the  year  [said  the  Medical 
Record,  of  New  York]  will  doubtless  be  one  of  the 
most  useful  and  practical  in  the  coming  century,  for 
the  reason  that  it  is  the  summing-up  of  methods  and 


344-     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

theories,  with  a  practical  solution  of  a  medico-social 
problem.  ...  It  is  not  the  extolling  of  a  philanthro- 
pic scheme  [Craig  Colony]  that  makes  this  book  val- 
uable ;  it  is  the  practical  discussion  of  site,  labor, 
buildings,  restrictions,  diet,  training,  supervision,  eco- 
nomics, nursing,  and  treatment  of  epileptics  that  il- 
lustrates what  has  been  done  in  this  beautiful  Gene- 
see village,  with  its  farm-lands  and  orchards,  to  make 
the  epileptic  a  useful,  happy  member,  in  spite  of  his 
fits.  .  .  .  The  chief  value  of  Mr.  Letchworth's  his- 
torical sketches  and  descriptions  of  methods  of  work 
is  that  it  is  now  possible  for  every  state  in  the  Union 
to  establish  just  such  a  colony,  without  the  labor  of 
breaking  the  ground  of  new  ideas  and  untried  phil- 
anthropy. 

To  the  same  effect  the  Medical  News  of 
Philadelphia  spoke  of  Mr.  Letchworth  and  his 
book  :  — 

As  one  of  the  foremost  students  of  philanthropy 
and  sociology  in  the  state,  his  voice  upon  the  subject 
combines  the  tone  of  authority  and  experience.  His 
book  is  not  the  plea  of  a  dreamer  of  social  reforms ; 
it  is  a  keen,  practical,  detailed  account  of  how  to 
bring  about  and  accomplish  what  most  people  only 
talk  about.  To  care  for  the  dependent  classes  with- 
out pauperizing  them,  and  without  overtaxing  the 
community,  and  to  care  for  the  hitherto  almost  un- 
curable  epileptic  in  such  a  way  that  he  may  be  bene- 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       345 

filed  without  sedative  drugs,  but  by  the  skilful  appre- 
ciation of  the  laws  of  nature,  is  the  problem  which 
Mr.  Letchworth  has  solved  in  his  work ;  and  every 
state  in  the  Union,  and  every  private  sanatorium  for 
epileptics  in  the  country,  could  not  do  better  than 
study  the  question  from  his  standpoint. 

The  foremost  of  European  authorities  on 
epilepsy,  Dr.  Wildermuth,  of  Stuttgart,  wrote 
of  the  work  to  Mr.  Letchworth:  — 

Rarely  has  a  book  given  me  as  much  pleasure  as 
your  fine  and  complete  work,  which,  indeed,  is  the 
only  one  of  its  kind  in  literature.  When  I  began  to 
interest  myself  actively  in  the  care  of  epileptics,  over 
twenty  years  ago,  there  was  very  little  interest  taken 
in  the  question  by  physicians,  even  by  nervous  spe- 
cialists. The  great  progress  made  since  those  days  is 
well  shown  in  your  book.  Any  one  who  has  done 
work  of  a  similar  nature  will  be  able  to  appreciate  the 
amount  of  patient  labor  that  your  book  has  cost  you. 
The  rich  material  you  have  collected  is  presented  in 
a  very  clear  and  finished  manner.  .  .  .  The  chapter  on 
general  principles  is  of  special  interest  to  me  and  has 
given  me  much  pleasure,  as  here,  too,  you  have 
treated  the  subject  exhaustively,  clearly  bringing  out 
all  essential  points. 

Early  in  the  undertaking  of  this  literary  task 
on  behalf  of  the    epileptic,  if  not  somewhat 


346     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

prior  to  it,  Mr.  Letchworth,  in  conjunction  with 
Dr.  Peterson,  Dr.  Spratling,  General  Brinker- 
National  ^off}  of  Ohio,  and  other  leaders  in 
Association  the  movement  of  feeling  on  behalf 
organized  ^f  i-^Qse  neglected  sufferers,  took 
steps  toward  bringing  about  the  organization 
of  a  national  association  for  the  study  of  epi- 
lepsy and  the  care  and  treatment  of  its  vic- 
tims. At  a  meeting  brought  together  in  the 
City  of  New  York,  on  the  24th  of  May,  1898, 
such  a  national  association  was  organized,  with 
William  Pryor  Letchworth,  LL.D.,  for  its 
president;  Frederick  Peterson,  M.D.  (New 
York  City),  first  vice-president ;  Professor  Will- 
iam Osier,  M.D.  (Baltimore),  second  vice- 
president;  William  P.  Spratling,  M.D.  (Craig 
Colony),  secretary  ;  H.  C.  Rutter,  M.D.  (Gal- 
lipolis,  Ohio),  treasurer,  and  an  executive  com- 
mittee of  five,  Dr.  Peterson,  chairman. 

The  first  annual  meeting  of  the  Association 
was  not  held  until  three  years  later,  when  a 
First  meet-  ^^§^^7  satisfactory  body  of  members 
ing  of  the  was  assembled  at  Washington,  on 
Association     ^j^^    j^^j^   and    15th   of  May,  1901. 

In  the  interval  there  had  been  much  well- 
directed  exertion  by  the  officers  of  the  Assoc- 
iation and  their  helpers  to  extend  its  membership 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       347 

and  to  secure  contributions  to  the  reports  and 
discussions  that  would  make  the  meeting  pro- 
fitable and  interesting.  It  goes  without  saying 
that  the  president  of  the  Association  took  his 
full  share  of  this  arduous  work.  He  is  quite 
likely  to  have  done  more  than  his  share.  Gen- 
eral BrinkerhofF,  at  least,  thought  that  he  did; 
for  writing  to  him  afterwards,  with  reference  to 
the  published  proceedings  of  the  meeting,  he 
said:  "I  wish  now  to  congratulate  you  on  the 
results  of  that  conference,  which  owed  its  ex- 
istence to  your  tireless  industry  in  getting  it  to- 
gether and  securing  so  many  valuable  papers 
which  are  given  to  the  world  in  this  report." 

How  wide  a  ground  was  covered  by  the  pa- 
pers presented  to  the  meeting  is  indicated  in 
the  following  passage  from  a  brief  address  by 
President  Letchworth  at  the  opening  of  its  pro- 
ceedings :  — 

Through  the  kind  courtesy  of  Secretary  Hay,  valu- 
able service  has  been  rendered  the  Association.  By 
his  assistance  and  the  benevolent  cooperation  of  our 
foreign  ministers  and  ambassadors  we  have  inform- 
ation relating  to  this  strange  disease  from  different 
countries  of  Europe,  including  Sweden  in  the  north 
and  Italy  in  the  south.  We  have  valuable  papers  and 
communications  from  Mexico,  South  America,  India, 


348     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

and  Japan,  also  hints  of  progressive  work  in  Austra- 
lia, From  other  reliable  sources  we  have  a  review  of 
the  work  for  epileptics  in  Great  Britain,  including  an 
interesting  account  of  the  development  of  the  useful 
and  beneficent  work  of  the  National  Society  for  Em- 
ployment of  Epileptics,  at  Chalfont,  St.  Peter,  Eng- 
land. We  have  late  information  concerning  the  pro- 
gress of  the  great  work  at  the  Bethel  Colony,  near 
Bielefeld  [in  the  Prussian  Province  of  Westphalia], 
and  much  that  is  suggestive  from  Belgium  and  Swit- 
zerland. We  wait  expectantly,  hoping  for  more  light 
from  the  wide  expanse  of  Russia,  including  the  wine- 
growing region  of  the  Caucasus.  From  all  these  va- 
rious sources  we  have  matter  for  study  and  reflection. 
The  history  of  the  special  work  for  epileptics  will  be 
brought  down  to  the  present  date  in  Ohio,  New  York, 
Massachusetts,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Texas, 
and  elsewhere  in  the  United  States. 

The  "  Transactions  "  of  this  first  annual  meet- 
ing of  the  National  Association  for  the  Study 
of  Epilepsy  and  the  Care  and  Treatment  of 
Epileptics  were  edited  for  publication  by  Presi- 
dent Letchworth,  and  produced  from  the  press 
before  the  close  of  the  year.  At  the  next  annual 
meeting  of  the  Association,  held  at  New  York 
in  October,  1902,  the  following  resolution  was 
adopted  :  "  That  this  Association  has  great 
pleasure  in  extending  to  the  Honorable  Will- 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       349 

iam  Pryor  Letchworth,  LL.D.,  its  most  cordial 
thanks  for  his  valuable,  painstaking,  and  labori- 
ous work  in  preparing  for  publication  the  trans- 
actions of  the  Association's  first  annual  meet- 
ing, held  in  Washington,  D.C.,  in  May,  1901, 
and  for  his  generous  gift  of  a  sum  of  money 
sufficient  to  pay  the  cost  of  printing  and  bind- 
ing one  thousand  copies  of  the  same."  The 
volume,  beyond  question,  was  a  most  valuable 
supplement  to  that  which  Mr.  Letchworth  had 
published,  two  years  before,  as  his  personal 
compilation  on  the  subject  of  the  "  Care  and 
Treatment  of  Epileptics."  Dr.  Wildermuth  was 
one  of  many  who  gave  it  a  very  earnest  wel- 
come. 

The  Association  had  now  a  list  of  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty-eight  regular  and  eighteen  hon- 
orary members,  the  latter  being  scientists  of 
distinction  in  other  countries.  It  represented  a 
widely  wakened  interest  in  the  study  and  the 
social  duty  which  it  had  been  organized  to  pro- 
mote. Those  who  labored  to  arouse  that  inter- 
est could  now  take  rest  in  some  degree ;  and 
for  him  whose  work  is  the  subject  of  record 
here  the  rest  was  a  clear  necessity.  He  would 
still  be  a  laborer  in  the  vineyard  that  had  tasked 
him  so  long,  but  with  a  slower  hand ;  and  the 


350     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

finishing  touches  were  being  given  to  his  handi- 
work in  its  various  directions,  here  and  there. 
Practically  he  had  done  what  he  could  for  the 
epileptics,  and  would  attempt  no  more,  except 
in  the  way  of  suggested  action,  at  times,  by  the 
Association  in  its  annual  meetings.  Beyond  the 
first  one,  he  was  unable  to  attend  these  meet- 
ings, but  his  interest  in  them,  and  in  Craig 
Colony,  and  in  all  the  work  for  epileptics,  was 
never  lost. 

In  other  arenas  of  public  benevolence  he  had 
been  continuingly  active  since  his  retirement 
Incidental  from  official  service,  and  would  con- 
labors  tinue  so  for  a  brief  term  still.  In 
June,  1897,  he  had,  for  the  last  time,  addressed 
the  Superintendents  of  the  Poor  of  New  York 
State,  sketching  the  history  of  their  conven- 
tions, showing  the  good  that  had  come  from 
them,  and  pointing  out  the  lines  on  which  more 
could  be  achieved.  In  July  of  the  same  year,  at 
the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and  Cor- 
rection, held  at  Toronto,  Canada,  he  read  the 
paper  on  "  Dependent  Children  and  Family 
Homes"  which  has  been  spoken  of  in  a  former 
chapter. 

That  year  he  found  bits  of  leisure  and  op- 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       351 

portunity  for  renewing  attention  to  those  claims 
of  historical  duty  which  he  had  always  felt  to 
be  urgent  on  the  people  of  the  Genesee  Valley. 
Among  the  incidents  of  General  Sullivan's  ex- 
pedition to  the  Valley,  in  1779,  was  one  which 
touched  his  feeling  peculiarly,  and  it  had  long 
been  his  wish  to  have  the  scene  of  it  marked 
memorially.  A  detachment  of  Sullivan's  troops 
had  been  ambushed  by  the  Indians  and  slaugh- 
tered, the  two  officers  of  the  company.  Lieu- 
tenant Thomas  Boyd  and  Sergeant  Michael 
Parker,  being  cruelly  tortured  to  death.  In  a 
letter  addressed  to  the  President  of  the  Living- 
ston County  Historical  Society,  Mr.  W.  Austin 
Wadsworth,  March  19,  1897,  ^^  suggested  the 
propriety  of  action  by  the  Society  to  secure  pos- 
session of  the  two  spots  hallowed  by  these 
tragedies  of  patriotism,  and  to  mark  them  in 
some  enduring  way.  During  the  following  sum- 
mer, in  company  with  Mr.  Andrew  Langdon, 
president  of  the  Buffalo  Historical  Society,  he 
visited  and  studied  the  ground,  to  assure  him- 
self of  the  accuracy  with  which  the  points  In 
question  could  be  identified.  From  the  data  in 
hand  that  assurance  was  made  clear  to  them, 
beyond  question.  The  place  of  ambush  was 
found  in  the  town  of  Groveland  and  the  place 


352     WILLlAAl  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

of  torture  near  Cuylerville,  both  spots  being  in 
Livingston  County.  By  subsequent  action  the 
Livingston  County  Historical  Society  acquired 
title  to  the  Groveland  site  and  erected  on  it  a 
plain  monument,  appropriately  inscribed.  Un- 
fortunately, the  other  site  could  not  be  secured. 

Early  in  the  next  year  a  project  of  sordid 
menace  to  Glen  Iris  came  to  light,  and  the  peace 
Menace  to  o^  ^^e  Glen's  good  master  and  de- 
Glen  Iris  voted  lover  was  tormented  by  it 
thenceforward  until  his  death.  Avaricious  capi- 
tal had  planned  to  exploit  the  falls  of  the  Gene- 
see for  electric  power,  and  the  legislature,  in 
the  spring  of  1898,  had  before  it  a  bill  which 
granted  the  needed  authority.  Later  on  there 
will  be  a  story  to  tell  of  painful  experience  from 
this  cause ;  for  the  present  we  will  pass  it  by. 

In  the  midst  of  the  anxieties  which  now  be- 
came ever  present  in  his  mind,  Mr.  Letchworth 
could  still  give  thought  to  the  old  subjects  of 
his  care,  and  in  the  spring  of  1898  we  find  him 
contributing  his  influence  to  a  movement  in 
Erie  County  for  separating  the  poorhouse  from 
the  county  hospital,  and  establishing  the  latter 
on  a  large  country  farm.  In  December  of  that 
year  he  was  grieved  by  the  death  of  Dr.  Hoyt, 
who  had  been  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       353 

Charities  from  its  organization  in  1868,  and 
with  whom  he  had  worked  throughout  his  whole 
service  in  the  Board.  Soon  after  this  he  suffered 
an  illness  which  caused  some  anxiety,  but  it  did 
not  disable  him  for  the  hard  work  of  1899  on 
the  "  Care  and  Treatment  of  Epileptics."  How 
onerous  and  trying  that  work  had  been  may  be 
inferred  from  what  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in  May, 
1 900 :  — 

My  desk  is  a  mass  of  papers  in  unutterable  con- 
fusion. I  think  I  must  have  at  this  moment  fifty  or 
more  unanswered  letters  on  it,  among  them  several 
from  Professor  Barnard,  formerly  Commissioner  of  the 
United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  asking  a  list  of 
questions  that  will  take  me  a  week  to  answer.  He 
and  his  daughter  press  me  for  replies.  .  .  .  What  am 
I  to  do  ?  And  how  can  I  go  to  Topeka  [to  the  National 
Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction]  ?  The  con- 
ference convenes  on  the  18th  inst.  and  lasts  until  the 
24th.  Then  there  is  the  convention  of  medical  super- 
intendents of  institutions  for  the  feeble-minded,  to  be 
held  the  last  of  the  month  at  Polk,  in  western  Penn- 
sylvania, to  which  I  am  urgently  invited  and  which  I 
would  like  to  attend. 

He  attended  the  meeting  at  Polk,  and  on 
the  loth  of  June,  after  his  return,  was  able  to 
write :  "  Am  getting  my  papers  pretty  well  in 


354     WlLLIAiM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

hand."  But  on  the  21st  he  must  be  at  an  im- 
portant meeting  of  the  Epileptic  Association, 
in  New  York,  for  which  he  had  preparations  to 
make. 

Later  that  year,  in  November,  Mr.  Letch- 
worth  was  called  to  Albany,  to  attend  the  First 
State  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction, 
as  its  president,  and  to  make  an  opening  ad- 
dress. For  the  main  theme  of  his  address  he 
reverted  to  his  old  urgency  of  the  fundamental 
need  of  a  carefully  discriminating  classification 
in  all  treatment  of  the  dependent  and  offending 
classes,  and  most  carefully  in  the  treatment  of 
the  young.  Much  had  been  done  in  that  direc- 
tion, as  he  showed,  but  the  principle  must  be 
carried  further,  and  for  reasons  economic  as  well 
as  humane.  He  looked  to  the  future  with  a 
robust  faith  and  hope.  The  address  was  one  of 
the  wisest  counsels  he  has  left.  Excepting  the 
brief  address  which  he  made  on  opening  the 
First  Annual  Meeting  of  the  National  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Study  of  Epilepsy,  held  at 
Washington  in  the  next  May,  it  was  his  last  de- 
liberate and  formal  utterance  on  the  subjects 
which  had  occupied  his  mind  during  half  of  his 
life. 

He  attended  the  second  of  the  State  Confer- 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       355 

ences,  in  November,  1 901,  and  took  a  little  part 
in  one  of  the  discussions  on  that  occasion,  speak- 
ing with  unwonted  bitterness,  in  de-  Bitter  de- 
nunciation of  the  county- iail  system,  nunciation 

,     •    .  J.I-  of  the 

as    admmistered  m   his  own  county  county-jail 

for  the  personal  profit  of  the  sheriff   system 
of  the  county.    His  remarks  were  called  out  by 
one  of  the  committee  reports  presented  to  the 
conference,  in  the  course  of  the  discussion  of 
which  he  said  :  — 

Since  the  building  of  the  old  jail  in  that  county 
[Wyoming]  —  I  do  not  know  just  how  many  years 
ago  —  fifty,  sixty,  or  seventy  years  ago  —  we  have 
suffered  under  a  grave  abuse  there.  Young  men  and 
lads  committed  to  this  jail  have  been  brought,  under 
the  system  there,  into  intimate  association  with  the 
most  hardened  offenders,  —  those  who  have  been  dis- 
charged convicts  from  state  prisons,  —  and  these  have 
the  opportunity  of  teaching  them  all  the  vices  and  the 
crimes  and  the  very  worst  features  of  criminal  life. 
Thus,  in  that  county,  through  these  years,  we  have 
been  educating  lads  and  young  men  for  the  penitenti- 
ary, where  they  have  to  be  supported  at  the  expense 
of  the  state.  But  a  plan  for  a  new  jail  comes  up,  and 
I  was  among  those  interested  in  getting  the  jail  con- 
structed on  the  principle  that  is  now  adopted  in  Ohio 
and  Minnesota,  whereby  there  is  a  complete  separ- 
ation of  the  prisoners.    A  prisoner  might  come  in  and 


356     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

remain  until  his  term  expired  and  not  see  another. 
Now  it  would  seem  as  if  that  was  very  desirable.  It 
was  practicable.  It  was  shown  beyond  any  question 
that  the  jail  part  of  the  prison  could  be  built  that  way 
without  any  additional  expense.  And  why  could  not 
that  be  carried  ?  It  was  because  the  sheriff  said  :  '■'■  I 
object  to  that.  It  affects  my  income.  I  can't  afford 
it.  It  reduces  my  income."  That  was  the  objection, 
stated  boldly.    And  he  carried  his  point. 

Now,  I  felt  deeply  interested  in  this.  ...  I  went 
before  the  board  of  supervisors,  myself,  and  I  pleaded. 
I  asked  that  I  might  be  humored  in  the  matter,  in  con- 
sideration of  my  long  service  to  the  state.  I  asked  for 
that  favor  to  those  young  men.  I  tell  you,  friends,  it 
was  denied  me,  and  it  was  denied  to  those  young  men. 
And  what  was  the  objection  ?  No  objection  but  the 
influence  of  that  sheriff  whose  pocket  was  affected. 
There  would  be  a  less  number  of  prisoners  in  the  jail 
under  this  system,  and  so  he  could  not  make  as  much 
out  of  it.  This  is  a  great  wrong.  How  are  we  going 
to  remedy  it  ?  I  would  say  further,  and  I  say  it  with 
great  respect,  that  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  Prison 
Commission  of  the  State ;  but  the  Ohio  plan  and  the 
Minnesota  plan  were  set  aside,  and  the  jail  was  so 
built  that  we  shall  go  on  for  sixty  or  seventy  years 
more  under  a  system  that  ruins  young  men.  It  is  a 
pity. 

Excuse  me  for  speaking  with  so  much  emphasis ; 
but  this  is  something  that  I  know  of  my  own  know- 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       357 

ledge,  and  it  goes  to  my  heart.  How  are  we  going  to 
save  these  young  men  ?  How  are  we  going  to  set  aside 
this  abominable  system  ?  It  is  feasible,  if  we  choose 
to  do  it,  in  the  smaller  counties.  I  do  not  speak  of  the 
large  jails,  such  as  those  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn. 
I  speak  of  the  small  jails  throughout  the  country. 

Death   came    once    more    into    Mr.    Letch- 
worth's  family  in  the  summer  of  1902,  when 
his  sister  Hannah — Mrs.   William  Howland, 
of  Sherwood,  New  York  —  died.    Six   months 
later,  on  the  14th  of  February,  1903,  a  stealthy 
forerunner  of  the  dread  angel  crept  stricken 
into    the    home    at    Glen    Iris    and  with  partial 
touched  its  master  with  a  paralyzing  Paralysis 
finger,  leaving  him  maimed  and  weakened  for 
the  remaining  seven  years  of  his  life.  That  night 
Miss  Bishop  made  this  record  in  her  diary  of 
what  had  happened  :  — 

After  supper  this  evening  Miss  McCloud  [a  cousin 
of  Mr.  Letchworth,  who  had  lived  with  him  and  con- 
ducted his  household  since  Mrs.  Crozer's  death],  sis- 
ter Ellen,  and  I  went  to  the  library,  and  soon  after 
Mr.  Letchworth  came  in  and  asked  for  a  volume  of 
Tennyson.  He  wished  to  look  for  a  quotation  in 
which  occurred  the  expression  "  an  ancient  tale  of 
wrong."  He  opened  the  volume  to  "  Lord  Burleigh," 
which    I    read   aloud  at   his   request ;    and  then   Mr. 


358     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Letchworth  took  the  book  and  began  to  read  "Lady 
Clare."  He  had  read  but  a  few  words  when  his  speech 
grew  inarticulate  ;  a  strange  expression  came  over  his 
face,  his  head  bowed,  and  his  book  dropped  to  the 
floor.  But  while  Miss  McCloud  and  I  went  to  sum- 
mon assistance,  Mr.  Letchworth  looked  up  and  spoke 
naturally  to  Ellen.  This  was  about  7.15  o'clock.  We 
assisted  him  to  the  couch,  when  he  said  something 
indistinctly  about  paralysis,  and  requested  us  to  look 
in  a  medical  book  and  find  out  what  to  do. 

Dr.  Miller,  of  Castile,  was  called  at  once,  and 
later  in  the  evening  a  message  was  sent  to  Dr. 
Roswell  Park,  of  Buffalo,  who  arrived  Sunday 
evening,  bringing  a  nurse. 

After  three  weeks  had  passed,  Miss  Bishop, 
in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Stephen  Smith,  the  long-time 
colleague  of  Mr.  Letchworth  in  the  State  Board 
of  Charities,  gave  the  following  account  of  the 
stricken  man's  state  :  — 

From  the  first,  Mr.  Letchworth's  mind  has  been 
active.  He  is  still  confined  to  his  bed,  except  for 
brief  periods  two  or  three  times  each  day,  when  he 
sits  in  his  easy  chair  to  rest.  The  entire  left  side  is 
somewhat  disabled  and  he  has  as  yet  but  little  use  of 
his  left  arm ;  but  his  face  is  natural.  It  has  been  very 
difficult  to  keep  him  as  quiet  as  the  doctors  desired, 
and,  until  some  of  the  work  which  was  on  hand  when 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       359 

he  was  taken  ill  was  cleared  away,  he  could  not  rest. 
Only  three  days  after  the  stroke  he  said  :  "  The  doctors 
say  I  must  not  think  about  my  work,  but  I  can  no 
more  help  it  than  I  can  stop  the  flow  of  the  Genesee 
River.  If  you  will  bring  a  pencil  and  some  paper  and 
take  down  a  brief  dictation  my  mind  will  be  relieved 
and  I  can  rest."  The  distressed  look  on  his  face  com- 
pelled me  to  yield  to  his  request.  He  dictated  two 
brief  letters  and  soon  after  fell  asleep.  Dr.  Park  says 
that  it  is  better  sometimes  to  give  him  an  opportunity 
to  relieve  his  overburdened  mind  than  for  him  to  be 
so  disturbed  because  his  work  is  not  done. 

Not  long  after  this  was  written  the  invalid 
was  made  happy  by  an  expression  to  him  of  the 
affection  with  which   he  was   regarded   by   the 
whole  community  of  Craig  Colony,   j^^^-^^g,^^^ 
It  came  in  the  form   of  a  beautiful   from  Craig 
loving-cup,  to  the  purchase  of  which   ^°^°^y 
nearly  a  thousand  of  the  patients,  attendants, 
and  officials  had  contributed,  none  of  the  former 
being  allowed  to  give  more  than  five  cents,  while 
some  had  pleasure  in  giving  one.   On  one  of  its 
faces  the  cup  bore  the  following  inscription  :  — 

Presented  to  the  Honorable  William  P.  Letchworth, 
LL.D.,  by  the  officers,  assistants,  employes,  and  pa- 
tients of  the  Craig  Colony  for  Epileptics,  at  Sonyea, 
Livingston  County,  New  York,  in  recognition  of  his 


36o     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

noble  and  unselfish  devotion  to  the  public  charities  of 
the  state,  and  especially  in  appreciation  of  his  untiring 
zeal  in  helping  to  found  the  Craig  Colony,  and  for  his 
faithful  and  continued  interest  in  its  welfare.  March 
10,  1903. 

It  had  been  intended  to  make  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  cup  an  occasion  of  some  ceremony 
at  the  colony ;  but  the  givers  were  profoundly 
grateful  for  so  much  improvement  in  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's  condition  as  permitted  it  to  be  done 
quietly  by  Dr.  Spratling  at  Glen  Iris. 

Late  in  April  Mr.  Letchworth  was  able  to 
receive  a  visit  from  his  friend  Johnston,  who 
wrote  to  him  on  returning  home  :  "  I  am  en- 
Slow  and       couraged  by  my  visit My  hope 

imperfect  is  that  you  will  soon  feel  much  more 
recovery  comfortable  and  better.  One  serious 
word  in  conclusion  :  God  needs  no  man's  work; 
yet  He  has  been  so  good  as  to  allow  you  these 
long  years  of  work  for  Him  and  His  poor  help- 
less children.  Nor  did  He  prevent  you  until 
your  work  was  well  rounded  up,  and  its  effect 
being  felt  all  over  the  world.  So,  sit  and  think 
with  joy  of  the  good  He  has  permitted  you  to 
do,  and  how  you  have  been  favored  and  beloved 
by  Him  and  by  your  fellow  men."  A  little  later 
the  same  good  counsellor  wrote :  "What  is  un- 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       361 

done  is  so  little  ;  what  has  been  done  is  so  much 
and  so  satisfactory  ;  it  would  be  wrong  to  worry 
over  the  completed."  In  such  words  Mr.  John- 
ston expressed  the  general  feeling  of  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's  friends, —  that  he  had  nothing  of  an 
incomplete  lifework  to  give  him  grief. 

By  the  middle  of  May  he  was  beginning  to 
be  wheeled  about  the  grounds  of  Glen  Iris,  and 
to  be  driven  out  to  some  of  his  fields  ;  but  he 
was  not  able,  on  the  4th  of  July,  to  attend  the 
dedication  of  the  Wyoming  County  Soldiers' 
and  Sailors'  Monument,  at  Warsaw,  in  bringing 
about  the  erection  of  which  he  had  taken  an 
actively  leading  part.  A  few  days  later  he  re- 
joiced in  the  ability  to  write  a  short  letter  with 
his  own  hand.  But  when  November  brought  to 
Buffalo  the  Fourth  State  Conference  of  Chari- 
ties and  Correction  he  could  not  attend  it.  That 
he  was  in  the  thought  of  those  present  was  as- 
sured to  him  by  the  following  expression  from 
the  conference,  communicated  to  him  by  its 
secretary  :  "  That  the  conference  greatly  regrets 
the  absence  of  the  Honorable  William  Pryor 
Letchworth,  of  Portage,  and  the  fact  that  his . 
absence  is  caused  by  illness.  Dr.  Letchworth 
was  the  first  president  of  the  conference,  and 
his  long  and  distinguished  services  for  the  poor 


362     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

have  won  the  respect  of  and  greatly  endeared 
him  to  the  members  of  this  conference,  who 
desire  to  place  upon  its  records  this  testimonial 
of  their  esteem." 

During  the  next  two  years  he  was  making 
slow  gains  of  strength  and  recovering  a  limited 
use  of  his  limbs;  the  capabilities  of  his  mind 
never  having  been  much  impaired.  Gradually 
he  became  busied  again,  not  with  any  new  un- 
dertakings in  the  former  lines  of  his  public 
work,  but  in  some  endeavors  to  enlarge  the 
fruitfulness  of  what  he  had  done,  as  well  as  in 
renewed  attention  to  his  private  affairs,  and  in 
attempts  to  reduce  his  enormous  accumulation 
of  letters  and  papers  to  an  orderly  state.  In 
September,  1904,  he  was  bereft  again  in  his 
home  by  the  death  of  Miss  McCloud,  and 
thereafter  had  none  of  kinship  to  him  in  his 
household,  but  was  affectionately  and  thought- 
fully cared  for,  especially  by  Miss  Bishop,  who 
had  been  his  secretary  and  confidential  assistant 
for  nearly  twenty-two  years.  He  was  surrounded, 
moreover,  as  he  had  been  throughout  his  life, 
by  the  devotion  of  all  who  came  into  his  ser- 
vice. 

In  the  spring  of  1906  the  danger  to  Glen 
Iris,  —  to  its  safety  and  its  beauty  alike,  —  which 


WORK  FOR  THE  EPILEPTIC       363 

had  been  threatening  it  for  several  years  and 
afflicting  Mr.  Letchworth  with  grievous  anx- 
iety, became  acute.  Its  causes  and  the  immedi- 
ate results  to  which  it  led  are  now  to  be  told. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    GIFT    OF    LETCHWORTH    PARK    TO    THE 
STATE    OF    NEW    YORK 

It  may  be  that  when  Mr.  Letchworth  made  his 
first  purchases  at  Glen  Iris  there  were  undefined 
thoughts  in  his  mind  of  some  ultimate  dedi- 
cation of  the  beautiful  place  to  a  public  use. 
There  is  no  warrant  for  such  a  conjecture,  but 
the  suggestion  of  it  comes  reasonably  enough 
from  a  general  observation  of  the  motives  that 
ruled  his  life,  and  the  forethoughtfulness  that 
went  into  everything  of  importance  that  he  did. 
All,  however,  that  we  can  know  of  the  en- 
trance of  that  thought   into  his  intentions  is, 

that  it  had  grown  to  a  certain  matur- 
The  Wyo-  ° 

ming  Bene-    ity  of  purpose  within  the  first  ten 

volent  In-  years  of  his  possession  of  the  Glen ; 
^'"®  for  he  made  it  manifest  in  1870,  by 

procuring  from  the  legislature  (chapter  479, 
Laws  of  1870)  the  passage  of  an  act  of  incorpo- 
ration which  provided  as  follows  :  — 

Section    i.  John   B.  Skinner,  Edward   H.   Letch- 
worth,  Henry  R.  Howland,   George   J.  Letchworth, 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK     365 

and  Josiah  Letchworth,  and  their  successors,  to  be 
duly  appointed  as  hereinafter  specified,  are  hereby  con- 
stituted and  appointed  a  body  corporate  for  the  pur- 
pose of  establishing  and  maintaining  in  the  County  of 
Wyoming  an  institution  for  the  support  and  educa- 
tion of  indigent  young  persons. 

Section  2.  Said  corporation  shall  be  called  the 
Wyoming  Benevolent  Institute,  and  under  that  name 
shall  have  perpetual  succession  and  be  capable  of 
taking  and  holding,  by  purchase,  gift,  grant,  devise, 
or  bequest,  any  real  or  personal  estate  for  the  purpose 
aforesaid. 

That  the  Wyoming  Benevolent  Institute  was 
organized  with  an  intention  to  identify  it  with 
the  future  of  the  Glen  Iris  estate,  or  with  some 
important  part  of  that  property,  is  left  in  no 
doubt  by  the  few  incidents  of  its  later  history. 
Nothing  that  even  attempted  the  fulfilment  of 
its  declared  purpose  ever  came  from  it;  but  the 
purpose  itself,  "  of  establishing  and  maintaining 
in  the  County  of  Wyoming  an  institution  for  the 
support  and  education  of  indigent  young  per- 
sons," does  not  appear  to  have  undergone  any 
change  for  many  years.  Its  full  realization  cannot 
have  been  expected  or  intended  to  occur  until 
after  Mr.  Letchworth's  death,  when  bequests, 
sometimes  mentioned  in  his  letters  to  the  trustees. 


366     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

would  make  a  provision  for  the  institution  which 
he  could  not  make  during  his  life.  It  is  doubt- 
ful if  he  ever  thought  of  being  able,  with  his 
own  means  solely,  to  establish  and  maintain, 
even  by  bequest,  an  institution  that  would  be 
worthy  of  the  setting  which  Glen  Iris  would 
give  it.  Aside  from  what  went  into  that  noble 
estate,  in  purchase  money  and  improvements, 
his  fortune  was  certainly  not  large,  and  the 
drafts  on  his  income  during  all  the  years  of 
his  service,  officially  and  personally,  to  afflicted 
humanity,  grew  heavier  as  time  went  on.  He 
counted  on  the  enlistment  of  others  with  him 
in  a  due  endowment  of  the  homes  and  schools 
for  homeless  girls  and  boys  which  he  would  plant 
in  his  lovely  valley. 

The  Wyoming  Benevolent  Institute  is,  there- 
fore, to  be  regarded  as  an  instrument  of  organi- 
zation made  ready,  with  wise  precaution,  in  ad- 
vance, for  employment  whenever  there  should 
come  to  it  the  legacies  provided  for  its  ultimate 
work.  It  may  be  that  Mr.  Letchworth  contem- 
plated originally  some  small  beginnings,  under 
his  own  eye,  of  the  "support  and  education  of 
indigent  young  persons,"  and  hoped  to  see  the 
institution  thus  planted  and  in  growth  while  he 
lived;  but  if  we  remember  that  when  he  organ- 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK    367 

ized  the  Institute  he  had  nothing  of  the  know- 
ledge of  such  undertakings  which  he  began  to 
acquire  soon  afterwards,  we  may  easily  believe 
that  the  more  he  learned  of  the  problems  in- 
volved the  more  he  felt  cautioned  against  haste 
in  his  designs. 

Correct  or  incorrect  as  our  explanations  of 
the  fact  may  be,  there  appears  to  have  been  no- 
thing done  by  the  Wyoming  Bene-  original 
volent  Institute  between  1870  and  plansforthe 
1883,  when,  on  the  15th  of  Octo-  Institute 
ber,  Mr.  Letchworth  addressed  to  the  trustees 
a  letter,  relating  at  the  outset  to  some  contem- 
plated buildings  and  other  improvements,  on 
property  which  he  had  conveyed  to  the  Insti- 
tute, and  then  proceeding  as  follows  :  — 

In  the  mean  time  I  desire  that  a  limited  work  on 
behalf  of  unfortunate  children  be  carried  on.  There 
are  so  many  ways  in  which  this  can  be  done  that  I  do 
not  wish  to  bind  the  trustees  to  an  exact  method 
which  subsequently,  under  changmg  conditions,  might 
be  found  inconvenient  to  carry  out.  My  private  idea  is, 
however,  in  the  main  to  take  healthy  and  intelligent 
children,  suitable  to  family  care,  who  are  thrown  on 
the  public  for  support,  either  through  loss  of  parents, 
destitution,  homelessness,  or  other  cause,  and  to  pro- 
vide for  such  a  temporary  home,  preparatory  to  placing 


368     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

them  as  soon  as  may  be  in  family  homes,  in  the  usual 
course.  A  cherished  thought  with  me  is  that  of  giving 
temporary  support  to  poor  girls  while  giving  them  a 
thorough  training  in  domestic  housekeeping,  gradu- 
ating them  with  certificates  of  competency;  also  of 
giving  a  like  opportunity  to  poor  boys,  while  making 
good  gardeners  and  florists  of  them.  The  work  for 
boys  and  girls  should  be  separately  carried  on, — the 
one  at  Glen  Iris  homestead,  perhaps,  for  girls,  and  the 
other  at  Prospect  Home  Farm  for  boys. 

Nothing  of  an  extended  character  can,  of  course, 
be  carried  on  until  there  has  been  an  aggregation  of 
funds  affording  a  yearly  handsome  income.  I  have 
strong  hopes,  however,  that  liberal  donations  will  be 
made  by  the  benevolent  to  carry  on  the  work,  as  soon 
as  they  see  it  fairly  inaugurated,  and  that  the  institu- 
tion will  soon  be  placed  on  an  independent  footing, 
and  enabled  to  carry  on  its  work  on  a  reasonably  large 
and  generous  scale.  I  have  given  all  I  have  to  accom- 
plish this.    I  can  do  no  more. 

These  hopes  were  not  realized.  The  Insti- 
tute was  still,  for  a  long  time,  to  be  scarcely 
Later  sug-  niore  than  a  name.  Evidently  Mr. 
gestions  Letchworth  had  not  enlisted  the  co- 
operation of  others  in  his  undertaking,  and  his 
view  of  the  practicabilities  in  it  had  undergone 
some  modification  at  last.  On  the  14th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1900,  he  wrote  again  to  the  trustees. 


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GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK     369 

revoking  his  letter  of  October  15,  1883,  and 
asking  that  his  present  writing  be  substituted 
therefor,  as  an  expression  of  his  desires  con- 
cerning the  future  use  of  the  bequest  he  had 
made  to  the  Institute.    In  this  letter  he  said:  — 

Considering  the  rare  advantages  the  property  pos- 
sesses, for  affording  the  opportunity  of  quick  recuper- 
ation to  delicate  children  who  may  be  brought  here 
from  crowded  cities  in  the  summer,  especially  during 
the  heated  term,  —  children  who  may  be  benefited  by 
country  air,  a  change  of  diet,  happy  surroundings,  —  it 
has  seemed  to  me  that  for  the  present,  and  perhaps 
for  some  years  to  come,  the  greatest  good  can  be  dis- 
pensed, with  the  means  at  hand,  by  bringing  needy 
children  to  Glen  Iris  from  the  cities  and  caring  for 
them  during  the  summer  months.  Eventually  it  may 
be  found  practicable  to  extend  to  boys  some  kind  of 
industrial  training,  to  include  gardening,  agriculture, 
and  instruction  in  different  branches  of  mechanic  arts; 
and  to  girls  domestic  science  and  floral  culture. 

Attempts,  inspired  by  selfish  motives,  have  already 
been  made,  as  y  nu  are  aware,  to  gain  control  of  the 
waters  of  the  Genesee  River  in  this  locality  and,  by 
placing  a  dam  across  the  river,  to  utilize  it  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  mercenary  schemes.  Should  such  a  pro- 
ject or  projects  ever  succeed,  the  consequences  would 
be  deplorable.  A  philanthropic  enterprise  that  I  have 
been  laboring  for  over  forty  years  to  place  on  an  en- 


370     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

during  foundation  would  be  jeopardized  if  not  over- 
thrown, and  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  health- 
giving  resorts  in  the  state  would  be  deprived  of  its 
attractiveness  and  means  of  affording  happiness.  I 
entreat  you  to  use  every  honorable  means  to  defeat 
such  attempts. 

In  this  letter  Mr.  Letchworth  expressed  again 
his  "  hope  that  liberal  gifts  will  eventually  be 
made  by  the  benevolent  to  aid  in  carrying  on 
the  work  of  the  corporation  on  a  reasonably 
large  and  generous  scale,"  and  added  :  "  Should 
no  outside  aid  be  received,  however,  I  believe 
by  prudent  management  the  invested  fund  of 
the  corporation  may  be  increased  from  year  to 
year,  and  at  the  same  time  the  charitable  work 
may  be  so  conducted  on  a  prudent  scale  that  great 
good  may  be  dispensed  through  its  instrumen- 
tality." 

The  threatening  scheme  referred  to  in  this 
letter  was  one  which  planned  the  construction 
of  a  dam  above  the  upper  fall  of  the  Genesee, 
to  control  the  waters  for  a  development  of  elec- 
tric power,  and  it  gave,  ere  long,  an  entirely 
changed  destiny  to  Glen  Iris,  setting  aside  all 
prior  intentions  concerning  its  future  use.  For 
a  few  years,  however,  these  last  suggestions  of 
Mr.  Letchworth  to  the  trustees  of  the  Institute 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK    371 

were  carried  out.  He  deeded  to  them  the  piece 
of  property  known  as  "  Prospect  Home,"  con- 
taining fifty-nine  acres  of  ground,  with  a  com- 
fortable house,  possession  to  be  given  on  the 
1st  of  April,  1902.  After  that  time  children 
from  the  orphan  asylums  of  Buffalo  were  in- 
vited each  summer,  in  parties  of  ten  at  a  time, 
for  a  three  days'  visit  to  Prospect  Home,  and 
to  be  entertained  on  one  of  those  days  at  the 
Glen  Iris  home.  These  were  outings  that  gave 
great  happiness  to  little  people  who  have  scant 
shares  of  real  happiness  in  their  early  lives. 

At  about  the  same  time  a  small,  carefully 
chosen  library  of  books  and  current  periodicals 
was  opened,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Wyom- 
ing Benevolent  Institute,  for  circulation  in  the 
neighborhood. 

These  kindly  attempts  to  make  some  be- 
ginning of  the  benevolent  uses  of  Glen  Iris, 
which  the  Institute  had  been  organized  to  con- 
duct, were  soon  brought  to  an  end,  by  the 
menace  which  electric  science  had  inspired 
in  the  last  decade  of  last  century  against  all 
cascades  and  cataracts,  as  exhibitions  of  an  idly 
wasted  force.  For  some  years  prior  to  the  point- 
ing of  that  menace  directly  at  the  section  of 
the  Genesee  River  which  traversed  Mr.  Letch- 


372     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

worth's  domain,  there  had  been  projects  of  a 
storage  reservoir  on  the  river  for  purposes  con- 
Menacing      nected  with  the  Erie  Canal.    It  was 

project  of       suggested  in  the  annual  report  for 

water  stor-        or.         r     i  •  j 

age  on  the      1 089  ot  the  state  engineer  and  sur- 

Genesee  veyor  on  canals  that  a  supply  of  water 
from  the  Genesee  River,  imm.ediately  available, 
by  means  of  such  storage,  would  be  of  great 
value  in  case  of  any  serious  accident  to  the  canal 
west  of  Rochester.  On  this  suggestion  the  leg- 
islature directed  the  state  engineer  to  investigate 
the  matter  and  report.  He  did  so,  and  his  report 
for  1890  recommended  the  construction  of  a 
storage  dam  at  a  point  a  short  distance  above 
Mount  Morris.  This  placed  it  near  the  lower 
end  of  the  continuous  gorge  through  which  the 
Genesee  runs  from  the  Lower  Falls  of  the  Port- 
age section  to  Mount  Morris,  thus  establishing 
the  storage  reservoir  within  that  gorge,  entirely 
below  Glen  Iris.  In  recommending  this  the 
state  engineer  declared  the  location  to  be  "pe- 
culiarly adapted  to  the  construction  of  a  stable 
and  safe  dam." 

In  1892  the  legislature,  by  concurrent  reso- 
lution, created  a  commission  of  three  persons 
to  consider  the  project  and  report  on  it.  This 
commission  reported  favorably,  approving  the 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK     373 

Mount  Morris  site.  In  his  report  of  the  next 
year  the  state  engineer  renewed  his  recommend- 
ation ;  and  in  1894  his  report  was  accompanied 
by  a  special  report  on  the  subject,  by  George 
W.  Rafter,  engineer  in  charge  of  the  water- 
storage  investigation.  This,  too,  was  urgent  in 
support  of  the  undertaking  to  establish  a  storage 
of  water  in  the  gorge  below  the  Glen  Iris  falls, 
by  a  dam  near  Mount  Morris.  Four  possible 
locations  of  the  dam  had  been  investigated,  all 
in  the  vicinity  of  Mount  Morris,  at  distances 
ranging  from  one  to  eight  miles  ;  but  one  or 
the  other  of  the  lower  two  was  preferred.  Thus 
far  no  other  sites  had  been  considered;  and  the 
project  was  still  regarded  as  a  public  enterprise 
for  the  state  to  take  in  hand,  primarily  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Erie  Canal,  with  incidental  bene- 
fits to  the  city  of  Rochester. 

In  this  view  the  legislature  of  1895  passed  an 
act  declared  to  be  "  for  the  construction  of  a 
dam  on  the  Genesee  River  for  the  purposes  of 
the  Erie  Canal,  and  for  restoring  to  the  owners 
of  water  power  on  the  Genesee  River  the  water 
diverted  by  the  state  for  canal  purposes."  This 
enactment  was  vetoed  by  Governor  Morton. 
In  his  veto  the  governor  recited  the  fact  that 
the  bill  required  the  dam  to  be  constructed  at 


374     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

one  of  three  sites,  "  all  in  a  gorge  in  the  Gene- 
see River  near  Mount  Morris,"  and  admitted 
that  "if  a  dam  is  to  be  constructed  upon  the 
Genesee  River  for  the  purpose  of  water  storage, 
this  gorge  is  the  most  available  place."  "  Civil 
engineers  and  others,"  he  added,  "agree  that 
the  opportunities  for  storing  a  large  quantity  of 
water  at  this  point  are  unsurpassed  if  not  un- 
equalled." His  objections  to  the  measure  were 
on  the  ground  that  the  existing  condition  of 
canal  business  did  not  justify  the  heavy  expend- 
iture involved,  and  that  no  provision  was  made 
for  any  contribution  towards  that  expenditure 
by  the  localities  interested.  In  his  view  the  pro- 
ject should  wait  until  the  people  had  voted  on 
the  then  pending  proposition  to  deepen  the 
Erie  Canal  to  nine  feet. 

But  speculative  capital  was  now  beginning  to 
be  excited  by  demonstrations  of  practical  suc- 
cess in  the  conversion  of  water  power  into  elec- 
tric power,  and  in  the  transmission  of  it  over 
considerable  distances  for  profitable  use.  The 
g.  .  tapping  of  the  Falls  of  Niagara  for 

change  in  this  purpose  was  in  progress,  and  its 
the  project  grand  success  was  realized  in  1896. 
This  may  have  brought  a  change  of  motive  into 
the  project   of  water  storage  in  the  Genesee, 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK     375 

and  an  access  of  new  ideas  into  the  minds  of 
the  officials  who  planned  for  it.  They  discov- 
ered themselves  to  have  been  in  error  when 
they  recommended  the  location  of  the  dam  at 
Mount  Morris.  They  now  saw  that  it  should 
be  placed  at  Portage,  above  the  Upper  Fall. 
"  Of  the  several  available  sites  for  storage  reser- 
voirs on  the  Genesee  River,"  said  the  state  engi- 
neer in  his  report  for  1896,  "completer  surveys 
show  that  the  Portage  site  is  preferable  to  all 
others,  because  of  affording  the  greatest  possi- 
ble storage  at  the  smallest  cost  per  unit  vol- 
ume." He  omitted  to  mention  the  further  fact 
that  the  water  to  be  stored  would  be  five  hun- 
dred feet  higher  at  Portage  than  at  Mount 
Morris,  and  afford  a  development  of  much 
more  power.  That  was  left  for  casual  mention 
in  the  accompanying  report  of  Mr.  George  W. 
Rafter,  the  engineer  in  charge  of  this  part  of 
the  state  engineer's  work. 

From  Mr.  Rafter's  report  we  learn  that  the 
surveys  and  investigations  at  Portage  were  made 
without  legal  authority,  and  expended  an  appro- 
priation which  the  legislature  had  specifically 
provided  for  further  surveys  at  Mount  Morris. 
"The  provision  in  question,"  said  Mr.  Rafter, 
"apparently  limited    the   additional    investiga- 


376     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

tion  to  the  site  formerly  considered  at  Mount 
Morris.  On  second  thought,  however,  it  ap- 
peared clear  that  this  was  a  technical  error 
which  had  no  significance."  And  so,  on  this 
"  second  thought,"  the  other  "  second  thought," 
of  a  dam  at  Portage,  was  brought  forward  with 
the  needed  preliminaries  of  survey  and  investi- 
gation. 

The  situation  was  now  well  prepared  for 
making  the  storage  of  water  and  water  power  on 
The  Gene-  ^^^  Genesee  River  an  undertaking 
see  River  of  private  enterprise,  relieving  the 
Company  state  of  cost  and  responsibility  and 
securing  an  opportunity  of  profit  to  the  pro- 
moters of  the  enterprise.  More  than  a  year 
passed,  however,  before  the  formal  assent  of  the 
state  to  that  treatment  of  the  project  was  se- 
cured. Then,  by  an  act  which  became  law  April 
29,  1898,  a  "  Genesee  River  Company  "  of  five 
persons,  Mr.  George  W.  Rafter  being  one,  was 
incorporated,  and  authorized  to  build  a  main 
dam  or  reservoir  on  the  Genesee  River  near 
Portageville.  The  ostensible  purpose,  as  set 
forth  in  the  preamble  of  the  act,  was  that  "of 
improving  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  Genesee 
Valley,  of  checking  floods  in  the  Genesee  River 
by  producing  as  far  as  possible  an  equable  flow 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK     377 

therein,  of  supplying  necessary  water  to  the  en- 
larged Erie  Canal,  and  of  furnishing  pure  and 
wholesome  water  for  municipal  purposes."  No 
hint  in  this  of  a  development  of  electric  power 
for  industrial  employment,  as  being  among  the 
purposes  of  the  dam.  That  was  secured  by  sub- 
sequent provisions  of  the  act,  but  as  though  it 
were  no  more  than  an  incident  or  accident  that 
would  attend  the  carrying-out  of  a  public- 
spirited  undertaking  on  the  part  of  the  people 
incorporated  for  it.  The  right  to  accept  and 
make  use  of  this  trifling  by-product  of  its  benefi- 
cent enterprise  was  conferred  on  the  Genesee 
River  Company  in  these  words  :  — 

Said  corporation  shall  have  the  right  to  utilize  all 
the  water  power  incidentally  created  by  the  construc- 
tion of  said  main  dam  or  reservoir,  and,  for  the  purpose 
of  such  utilization,  said  corporation  may  construct, 
maintain,  and  operate  in  and  upon  the  Genesee  River 
and  its  tributaries  within  one  mile  of  the  mouth  of 
each  of  such  tributaries  and  along  the  line  thereof,  at 
any  and  all  points  below  the  location  of  the  aforesaid 
main  dam  or  reservoir,  all  necessary  power  dams, 
subsidiary  reservoirs,  sluices,  gates,  trunks,  irrigation 
canals  and  distributaries,  hydraulic  pov/er  raceways, 
and  all  other  necessary  appliances  for  the  purpose  of 
utilizing  the  water  and  water  power  of  said  river  for 


378     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

the  development  of  hydraulic  and  electrical  power, 
and  for  the  purpose  of  making  and  transmitting  com- 
pressed air,  and  for  other  purposes. 

By  the  terms  of  the  act  they  were  required  to 

begin,  "actually  and  in  good  faith,"  "the  work 

of  constructing  the  said  main  dam 
Expiration  .  i       /^  t~.  • 

and  re-  °^  reservoir  on   the  Genesee   River 

vival  of  near    Portage,"  "  within   five   years 

charter  ^^^^^  ^^^  passage  of  this  Act,"  and  to 

expend  on  such  work  at  least  ten  per  centum  of 
the  minimum  ($3,000,000)  of  capital  stock  au- 
thorized by  the  act ;  in  default  of  w-hich  work  and 
expenditure  within  that  period  "the  said  cor- 
poration," it  was  declared,  "shall  be  dissolved." 
The  legislature,  in  its  grant  of  rights  and  powers 
to  these  incorporators,  had  spared  nothing  that 
could  help  to  make  their  franchise  highly  valu- 
able and  attractive  to  enterprising  capitalists. 
They  could  take  property,  even  of  cemeteries, 
by  condemnation.  They  could  acquire  property 
belonging  to  the  state  or  other  authorities  ;  they 
could  use  public  streets  and  highways ;  they 
could  fix  their  own  charges  for  power,  light,  etc., 
and,  as  shown  above,  there  was  seemingly  no- 
thing that  they  could  not  do  in  and  along  the 
shores  of  the  Genesee  River.  And  yet,  with 
such  a  franchise,  they  were   not  able  to   raise 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK     379 

^300,000  for  expenditure  on  their  project  within 
five  years.  That  period  expired  on  the  29th  of 
April,  1 903,  and  with  it  the  charter  of  the  Gene- 
see River  Company  expired. 

For  some  time  after  this  occurrence  Mr. 
Letchworth,  and  all  lovers  of  that  paradise  of 
the  Genesee  over  which  he  held  wardenship, 
had  relief  from  immediate  anxieties.  But  in  the 
winter  of  1906  the  supposedly  dead  Genesee 
River  Company  reappeared  before  the  legisla- 
ture, asserting  itself  to  be  still  in  life,  inasmuch 
as  the  provisional  mandate  of  dissolution  in  the 
Act  of  1898  had  never  been  enforced  against  it 
by  any  official  authority,  and  asking  for  legis- 
lation to  so  amend  the  Act  of  1898  as  should 
extend  to  five  years  from  July  i,  1906,  the  time 
allowed  for  beginning  the  construction  of  the 
Portage  dam  or  reservoir.  Despite  strong  oppo- 
sition the  legislature  listened  favorably  to  this 
remarkable  proposition,  and  passed  the  desired 
amendatory  act,  reviving  the  dangerous  fran- 
chise of  the  Genesee  River  Company,  unless 
the  courts  should  declare  that  the  legislature 
had  no  power  to  breathe  life  into  a  corpora- 
tion which  it  had  commanded  to  die  on  a  given 
day. 

Mr.  Letchworth  now  despaired  of  saving  his 


380     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

wonderful  part  of  the  river  and  its  enclosing 
valley  from  vandal  seizure  for  industrial  ex- 
Glen  Iris  to  Floatation,  by  any  other  means  than 
be  given  to  that  of  making  it  the  property  of  the 
the  state  state.  Having  long  been  ready  — 
perhaps  ready  from  the  beginning  of  his  owner- 
ship —  to  give  it  to  a  public  use,  he  was  quite 
prepared,  in  existing  circumstances,  to  make  the 
gift  direct  to  the  State  of  New  York.  Besides 
the  hope  of  thus  securing  the  beauty  of  his 
place  from  spoliation,  there  were  other  incidents 
of  the  situation  which  moved  him  to  the  same 
resolve.  He  indicated  them  to  his  nephew,  Mr. 
Ogden  P.  Letchworth,  president  of  the  board 
of  trustees  of  the  Wyoming  Benevolent  Insti- 
tute, in  a  letter  bearing  date  September  20, 
1906,  when  he  wrote  :  — 

It  has  doubtless  become  patent  to  you,  as  it  has  to 
me,  that  the  carrying-out  of  the  original  purposes  of 
the  Wyoming  Benevolent  Institute  is  now  utterly  im- 
practicable. Not  only  has  the  capital  that  I  intended 
for  this  work  become  so  lessened  as  to  greatly  reduce 
my  income,  but  the  expenses  of  carrying  on  the  work 
here  are  greatly  increased,  through  the  necessity  of 
paying  larger  wages  and  the  employing  of  a  larger  num- 
ber of  men  to  do  the  same  amount  of  work.  It  is  a 
large  property,  and   the  repairs  on  everything  perish- 


GIFT  OF  LETCH  WORTH  PARK     381 

able  are  constant  and  very  great.  ...  As  I  cannot 
carry  out  my  first  intention,  it  now  appears  to  me  that 
greater  good  will  come  to  mankind  from  the  devoting 
of  my  property  here  to  a  public  park,  embracing  some 
educational  features,  than  from  any  other  disposition 
of  it. 

Before  deciding  finally  to  make  the  proffer 
of  his  superb  domain  to  the  state  he  studied 
how  best  to  secure  for  it  a  faithful  caretaking  in 
future  years.   In  doing  this  he  became  attentive 
to  the  mission  and  work  of  the  Amer- 
ican  Scenic  and  Historic   Preserva-  tion  with 
tion  Society,  founded  by  Andrew  H.  American 
Green,  the  father  of  New  York  City's  HiXrk" 
Central    Park,  and   incorporated   in  Preserva- 
1895.    What  the  society  had  done  in  *^°°  ^°"^*y 
defending  Niagara  Falls  and  in  saving  the  Pali- 
sades of  the  Hudson,  Watkins  Glen,  etc.,  gave 
him  confidence  in  the  efficient  public  spirit  and 
influence  embodied  in  it,  and  in  1906  besought 
the  advice  of  its  trustees.    The  results   of  the 
consultation  are  told  in  the  Twelfth  Annual  Re- 
port of  the  Society,  as  follows:  — 

Upon  his  invitation  the  trustees  appointed  from 
among  their  number  the  following  committee  to  con- 
fer with  him  and  cooperate  in  carrying  out  his  benevo- 
lent  purposes  :   George  Frederick    Kunz,  Ph.D.,  of 


382     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

New  York,  the  mineralogist  and  gem  expert,  and 
president  of  the  society  ;  Professor  L.  H.  Bailey,  of 
Ithaca,  head  of  the  College  of  Agriculture  of  Cornell 
University ;  the  Honorable  Charles  M.  Dow,  of 
Jamestown,  New  York,  President  of  the  Commis- 
sioners of  the  State  Reservation  at  Niagara ;  Mr. 
Francis  Whiting  Halsey,  of  New  York,  the  well- 
known  writer  on  Indian  subjects  and  literary  adviser 
to  Funk  &  Wagnalls,  publishers ;  the  Honorable 
Thomas  P.  Kingsford,  of  Oswego,  a  commissioner  of 
the  state  reservation  at  Niagara;  Henry  M.  Leip- 
ziger,  Ph.D.,  educator  and  supervisor  of  lectures  of 
the  Board  of  Education  of  the  City  of  New  York  ; 
the  Honorable  N.  Taylor  Phillips,  deputy  comptroller 
of  the  City  of  New  York,  and  trustee  of  many  phil- 
anthropic organizations  ;  Colonel  Henry  W.  Sackett, 
of  New  York,  a  trustee  of  Cornell  University  and 
counsellor  to  many  public  bodies ;  and  the  writer  of 
this  paper  [Edward  Hagaman  Hall,  Secretary  of  the 
society] . 

After  several  conferences  with  these  gentlemen, 
Mr.  Letchworth  concluded  to  give  the  title  to  his 
property  to  the  State  of  New  York,  with  the  proviso 
that  he  should  retain  a  life  use  and  tenancy,  with  the 
right  further  to  improve  the  property,  and  that  upon 
his  death  the  American  Scenic  and  Historic  Preserva- 
tion Society  should  have  the  control  and  management. 
Having  resolved  upon  this  course,  he  asked  the  com- 
mittee to  communicate  his  purpose  to  the  Honorable 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK    383 

Charles  E,  Hughes,  governor-elect,  and  to  ask  him, 
if  he  approved,  to  transmit  the  offer  formally  to  the 
legislature. 

On  December  14,  1906,  the  committee  called 
upon  the  governor-elect.  After  listening  to  their 
mission,  Mr.  Hughes  expressed  his  high  appreciation 
of  the  generosity  and  public  spirit  of  Mr.  Letchworth 
and  said  :  "  In  the  midst  of  so  many  calls  from  people 
who  are  asking  for  something  from  the  state,  it  is  a 
novel  and  delightful  sensation  to  have  some  one  offer 
to  give  something  to  the  state.  This  is  certainly  a 
most  generous  benefaction."  Governor  Hughes  com- 
municated the  tender  to  the  legislature  in  his  inaugural 
message  to  that  body,  January  2,  1907,  in  the  follow- 
ing words  :  "  It  is  my  privilege  to  lay  before  you  the 
public-spirited  proposal  of  the  Honorable  William 
Pryor  Letchworth  to  convey  to  the  people  of  the  State 
of  New  York  one  thousand  acres  of  land,  approxi- 
mately, situated  in  the  town  of  Genesee  Falls,  Wyo- 
ming County,  and  the  town  of  Portage,  Livingston 
County,  upon  which  Mr.  Letchworth  now  resides. 
He  desires  to  dedicate  the  land  to  the  purposes  of  a 
public  park  or  reservation,  subject  to  his  life  use  and 
tenancy  and  his  right  to  make  changes  and  improve- 
ments thereon.  If  it  is  your  pleasure  to  provide  for 
the  acceptance  of  the  gift,  the  state  will  thus  obtain 
title  to  a  tract  of  rare  beauty,  the  preservation  of  which 
for  the  purposes  of  a  public  park  cannot  fail  to  con- 
tribute to  the  advantage  and  enjoyment  of  the  people." 


384     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Within   little    more   than    a   fortnight    after 

the  reception  of  this  message  the  assembly  had 

passed  a  bill  to  accept  title  to  the  lands 
Acceptance      ^  ,  '^ 

of  the  gift  proposed  to  be  given,  on  the  terms 
by  the  state  ^^^  conditions  stated  in  the  deed, 
"  namely,  that  the  land  therein  conveyed  shall 
be  forever  dedicated  to  the  purpose  of  a  public 
park  or  reservation,  subject  only  to  the  life  use 
and  tenancy  of  said  William  Pryor  Letchworth, 
who  shall  have  the  right  to  make  changes  and 
improvements  thereon."  The  bill  provided 
further :  "  All  lands  described  in  and  covered 
by  said  deed  of  William  Pryor  Letchworth 
shall  be  deemed  to  be  in  the  actual  possession 
of  the  comptroller  of  this  state,  subject  to  such 
life  use  and  tenancy  of  said  grantor.  After  the 
death  of  the  grantor  the  American  Scenic  and 
Historic  Preservation  Society  shall  have  con- 
trol and  jurisdiction  thereof  for  the  purposes 
stated,  unless  the  supreme  court  shall  deter- 
mine otherwise  for  good  cause  shown  upon  ap- 
plication of  the  comptroller,  or  some  other  duly 
authorized  official  of  the  state." 

In  the  senate  some  opposition  to  the  accept- 
ance of  the  gift  was  developed,  and  it  prevailed 
on  the  senate  finance  committee  to  report  an 
amended  bill,  omitting  the  clause  giving  cus- 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH   PARK     385 

tody  and  control  of  the  property,  after  Mr. 
Letchworth's  death,  to  the  American  Scenic  and 
Historic  Preservation  Society.  In  the  course 
of  the  debate  which  ensued  the  following  tele- 
gram from  Mr.  Letchworth  to  the  chairman  of 
the  finance  committee  was  read  :  — 

Mr.  Letchworth  respectfully  requests  your  honor- 
able committee  to  report  its  approval  of  the  bill  as 
passed  by  the  assembly  to  accept  his  deed  now  in  the 
hands  of  Governor  Hughes,  and  to  withdraw  the 
amended  bill  now  before  the  senate  striking  out  the 
Scenic  Society,  because,  to  expend  a  large  amount  in 
changes  and  improvements  contemplated  by  him  re- 
quires that  his  plans  be  known,  and  he  has  made  them 
known  to  the  Scenic  Society,  who  approve  and  will  be 
in  a  position  to  carry  them  out  with  funds  provided  by 
him  if  the  state  shall  not  disapprove  and  the  bill 
passed  by  the  assembly  shall  become  a  law. 

With  all  due  respect,  Mr.  Letchworth  cannot  ac- 
cept your  amended  bill,  but  must  regard  a  vote  for  it 
as  a  vote  not  to  accept  his  gift,  which  he  thinks  should 
be  accepted  upon  the  reasonable  conditions  he  states, 
if  the  gift  is  otherwise  acceptable,  his  main  reason 
being  that  if  the  state  could  afford  to  buy  and  pay  for 
Watkins  Glen  last  year  and  make  the  Scenic  Society 
the  permanent  custodian  thereof,  it  can  afford  to  ac- 
cept Mr.  Letchworth's  gift  now  of  much  more  valu- 
able scenic  and  historic  value,  and  make  the  Scenic 


386     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Society  the  temporary  custodian  thereof,  to  complete 
Mr.  Letchworth's  work  with  his  funds,  the  state  ob- 
taining absolute  title  to  the  property  and  the  right  to 
permanently  occupy  and  control  it. 

On  this  the  opposition  gave  way,  and  the 
bill  as  passed  by  the  assembly,  reported  now 
favorably  by  the  finance  committee,  was  passed 
by  the  senate,  —  forty  ayes  to  four  nays.  It  was 
the  first  act  signed  by  Governor  Hughes,  and 
on  signing  it,  January  24,  1907,  he  filed  with 
it  the  following  memorandum:  — 

This  bill  provides  for  the  acceptance  of  a  deed  of 
gift  made  by  William  Pryor  Letchworth  to  the  people 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  conveying  lands  of  about 
one  thousand  acres  in  extent,  situate  in  the  town  of 
Genesee  Falls,  Wyoming  County,  and  the  town  of 
Portage,  Livingston  County.  The  deed  is  made  upon 
the  condition  that  the  lands  shall  be  forever  dedicated 
to  the  purpose  of  a  public  park  or  reservation,  subject 
only  to  the  life  use  and  tenancy  of  Mr.  Letchworth, 
who  shall  have  the  right  to  make  changes  and  improve- 
ments thereon. 

This  gift  to  the  people  is  an  act  of  generosity  which 
fitly  crowns  a  life  of  conspicuous  public  usefulness, 
and  entitles  the  donor  to  the  lasting  regard  of  his 
fellow  citizens.  The  people  of  the  state  cannot  fail  to 
realize  the  advantages  which  will  accrue  from  their 
acquisition  of  this  beautiful  tract  and  by  means  of  its 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK     387 

perpetual  dedication  to  the  purpose  of  a  public  park  or 
reservation.  Charles  E.  Hughes. 

A  few  days  later,  January  28,  the  Governor 
sent  a  copy  of  the  act  to  Mr.  Letchworth,  with 
the  following  note:  — 

It  gives  me  pleasure  to  state  that  an  act  has  been 
passed,  of  which  I  enclose  a  copy,  providing  for  the 
acceptance  of  the  deed  of  gift  executed  by  you  under 
date  of  the  31st  of  December,  1906,  to  the  people  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  conveying  to  them  certain 
lands,  approximately  one  thousand  acres  in  extent,  in 
the  town  of  Genesee  Falls,  Wyoming  County,  and  the 
town  of  Portage,  Livingston  County,  upon  condition 
that  they  shall  be  forever  dedicated  to  the  purpose  of 
a  public  park  or  reservation,  subject  only  to  your  life 
use  and  tenancy  and  your  right  to  make  changes  and 
improvements  thereon.  I  also  enclose  a  copy  of  the 
memorandum  filed  by  me  upon  the  approval  of  the  bill. 

In  accordance  with  your  request  I  have  delivered  to 
the  comptroller  of  the  state  the  deed  executed  by  you, 
together  with  the  affidavit  and  other  documents,  which 
you  placed  in  my  hands. 

Permit  me  again  to  express  my  appreciation  of 
your  generous  and  public-spirited  gift  and  of  the  last- 
ing benefits  which  will  thereby  accrue  to  the  people  of 
the  state.      I  remain,  with  respect. 

Very  truly  yours, 
(Signed)  Charles  E.  Hughes. 


388     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

On  the  day  on  which  the  bill  became  a  law 
Mr.  Letchworth  made  this  public  acknowledg- 
ment :  — 

To  my  friends,  especially  those  of  the  press,  who 
have  sympathized  in  the  measure  to  secure  to  the 
people  for  all  time  a  public  park  at  Portage,  I  desire  to 
convey  my  cordial  thanks  for  their  warm  interest  and 
potent  influence.  In  the  development  of  a  higher  civil- 
ization, let  us  continue  our  efforts  to  preserve  for  the 
enjoyment  and  elevation  of  mankind  those  places  in 
our  land  possessing  rare  natural  beauty,  the  charms 
of  which,  once  destroyed,  can  never  be  restored. 
Very  respectfully, 

William  Pryor  Letchworth. 

By  concurrent  resolution  of  the  senate,  Feb- 
ruary 4,  and  of  the  assembly,  February  5,  it 
was  declared  that  the  lands  conveyed  to  the 
Ti,  ^T.,  state  bv  Mr.  Letchworth,  for  use 
state  reser-  as  a  park  or  reservation,  should  here- 
vation  ^^j.gj.     ^^   known    as    "Letchworth 

named  ,        , 

"Letchworth  Park,     "to   commemorate  the    hu- 

Park"  mane  and  noble  work  in  private  and 

public  charities  to  which  his  life  has  been  de- 
voted, and  in  recognition  of  his  eminent  serv- 
ices to  the  people  of  this  state."  On  receiving  a 
certified  copy  of  this  resolution,  Mr.  Letch- 
worth expressed  to  the  presiding  officers  of  the 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK    389 

two  chambers  of  the  legislature  his  "grateful 
appreciation  of  the  distinguished  honor." 

At  an  early  stage  of  the  proceedings  which 
thus  transferred  the  entire  Glen  Iris  property  to 
the  possession  of  the  state,  for  perpetual  use  as 
a  public  park  (named  Letchworth  Park  by 
legislative  resolution),  but  under  the  control 
and  jurisdiction  of  the  American  Scenic  and 
Historic  Preservation  Society,  Mr.  Letchworth 
had  addressed  a  communication  (December  15, 
1906)  to  the  trustees  of  the  Wyoming  Benevo- 
lent Institute,  announcing  the  conclusion  to 
which  he  had  come,  and  submitting  to  them  a 
request  for  the  conveyance  to  him  of  "the  real 
estate  belonging  to  the  Wyoming  Benevolent 
Institute  which  is  surrounded  by  and  was  for- 
merly a  portion  of  the  Glen  Iris  estate,  and 
thereby  make  possible  the  transfer  of  the  entire 
property  to  the  state  intact."  He  added  as  fur- 
ther suggestions  that  the  treasurer  of  the  Insti- 
tute be  authorized  to  pay  over  to  him  certain 
funds  in  the  treasury,  to  be  applied  by  him  to 
the  perfecting  and  carrying-out  of  improvements 
and  developments  of  the  property,  and  that  the 
small  library  of  the  Institute  be  transferred  to 
the  Cordelia  A.  Greene  Memorial  Library,  at 
Castile,  New  York. 


390     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Action  in  accordance  with  these  requests  and 
suggestions  was  taken  by  the  trustees  at  their  an- 
nual meeting,  December  i8,  1906. 

General  recognition  of  the  importance,  the 
value,  the  generosity  of  the  gift  of  Letchworth 
Importance  Park  to  the  public  was  manifested, 
of  the  gift  not  only  throughout  the  State  of 
New  York,  but  widely  in  the  country  at  large,  by 
the  comments  of  the  press,  and  by  letters  to 
Mr.  Letchworth  from  others  than  personal 
friends.  Of  its  kind  it  is  doubtless  the  most 
notable  gift  that  a  citizen  of  this  country  has 
ever  made  to  the  public  of  his  state.  Its  value 
and  importance  are  not  measured  by  the  area 
of  the  estate  conveyed,  but  by  the  fact  that  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  exhibits  of  rare  scenery 
in  America  was  contained  wholly  in  that  area. 
The  American  people  hold  many  such  beauty- 
spots  of  the  continent  in  public  possession  ;  but 
what  other,  of  equal  distinction,  has  become 
public  property  by  a  gratuitous  surrender  of 
private  rights  ? 

The  distinction,  moreover,  of  this  tract  of 
valley  and  river  is  not  alone  in  its  varied  pic- 
turesqueness,  but  also  in  its  geological  signifi- 
cance. As  long  ago  as  1 837  it  gave  its  name  to  the 
group  of  rocks  which  have  a  singularly  instruct- 


Map  of 
LETCHWORTH  PARK 

GIVEN  TO   THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE 
STATE  OF   NEW  YORK 
-  BY- 
WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

DECEMBER,    1906 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK     391 

ive  exposure  in  the  gorge  of  the  Portage  Falls. 
In  geological  nomenclature  this  series  of  rocks, 
traceable  from  Cayuga  Lake  westward  into 
Ohio,  bears  the  name  of  the  Portage  Group, 
given  to  it  by  Professor  James  Hall.  The  ex- 
ceptional character  of  the  rock  exposure  in 
Letchworth  Park  is  described  as  follows,  in  the 
inscription  prepared  in  1908  for  a  tablet  to  be 
erected  in  the  park  by  a  number  of  geologists  to 
the  memory  of  Professor  Hall :  — 

This  gorge,  embracing  the  three  Portage  Falls,  ex- 
hibits the  typical  expression  of  Hall's  Portage  Group, 
whose  rocks  carry  an  assemblage  of  organic  remains 
more  widely  diffused  throughout  the  world  than  that 
of  any  other  geological  formation. 

The  whole  geological  history  of  this  section 
of  the  Genesee  Valley  has  been  found  to  be  un- 
commonly interesting,  and  has  been  studied 
with  care  by  Dr.  John  M.  Clarke,  state  geolo- 
gist of  New  York,  Dr.  A.  W.  Grabau,  Professor 
of  Palaeontology  at  Columbia  University,  and 
others.  Professor  Grabau  discussed  it  in  an  ad- 
dress descriptive  of  the  interesting  features  of 
Letchworth  Park,  at  a  meeting  of  the  section 
of  Geology  and  Mineralogy  of  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Sciences,  March  4,  1907.  It  has 


392     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

been  treated  more  fully  by  Professor  H.  L.  Fair- 
child,  of  Rochester  University,  in  a  paper  on 
"  Glacial  Genesee  Lakes,"  published  in  volume 
VII  of  the  Bulletin  of  the  Geological  Society  of 
America.  A  synopsis  of  this  geological  history, 
prepared  by  Mr.  Edward  Hagaman  Hall,  secre- 
tary of  the  American  Scenic  and  Historic  Pre- 
servation Society,  is  presented  in  the  Twelfth 
Annual  Report  of  that  Society,  as  the  third 
chapter  of  Appendix  B.  It  is  touched  upon, 
also,  in  Appendix  C  of  the  same  report,  wherein 
the  general  "  Educational  Possibilities  of  Letch- 
worth  Park,"  as  bearing  on  art,  geology,  botany, 
bird  life,  Indian  history  and  archaeology,  and 
model  farming,  are  discussed  by  Dr.  George 
Frederick  Kunz,  president  of  the  American 
Scenic  and  Historic  Preservation  Society. 

This,  the  scientific  view  of  Mr.  Letchworth's 
gift  to  the  state,  led  the  New  York  Academy 
of  Sciences,  at  a  meeting  on  the  4th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1907,  to  express  its  estimate  of  the  im- 
portance of  the  gift  in  the  following  preamble 
and  resolutions  :  — 

Whereas,  The  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences 
has  learned  of  the  generous  gift  to  the  State  of  New 
York  of  a  public  park  known  as  Glen  Iris,  at  Portage, 
by  Mr.  William   Pryor  Letchworth,  and   its  accept- 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK    393 

ance  by  the  state  legislature,  under  the  condition 
prescribed  by  Mr.  Letchworth,  that  this  beautiful  re- 
servation be  placed  in  charge  of  the  American  Scenic 
and  Historic  Preservation  Society  : 

Resolved^  That  the  Academy  of  Sciences  expresses 
its  recognition  of  the  value  to  science  of  this  reserva- 
tion, which,  in  addition  to  its  exceptional  interest  from 
the  point  of  view  of  scenery,  botany,  and  glacial  geol- 
ogy, contains  an  important  part  of  the  standard  section 
of  the  Upper  Devonic  formations  of  North  America ; 

Resolved^  That  the  Academy  hereby  expresses  its 
sincere  appreciation  of  this  gift,  which  will  give  pleas- 
ure and  be  of  important  educational  value  for  all  time 
to  the  people  of  the  State  of  New  York  and  to  visitors 
from  other  states  and  countries  ;   and 

R.esolved^  That  the  thanks  of  the  New  York  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences  be  and  hereby  are  tendered  to  the 
distinguished  and  public-spirited  donor. 

By  passing  into  the  possession  of  the  state, 
Letchworth  Park  had  not  escaped  from  the  be- 
sieging commercialism  which  covets  the  "power 
going  to  waste "  in  mere  production  of  the 
beauty  of  a  waterfall.  Practically  it  seems  to 
have  been  made  safe  as  against  the  Genesee 
River  Company,  since  the  doubtfully  revivified 
charter  of  that  company  was  allowed  again  to 
expire,  on  the  ist  of  July,  191 1,  with  no  attempt 
to  test  its  validity.   But  the  authority  of  the  New 


394     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

York  State  Water  Supply  Commission  was  now 
invoked,  in  an  effort  to  have  the  storage  of  water 
in  the  Genesee  above  Letchworth 
of  water  Park  undertaken  by  the  state  itself, 
storage  In     1908    the     legislature     directed 

projec  ^j^^  State  Water  Supply  Commission 

to  make  the  necessary  surveys  and  maps  and 
"  to  determine  whether  the  flow  of  the  river 
should  be  regulated  under  the  river  improve- 
ment act,"  which  had  been  passed  in  1904. 
Then,  in  September,  1908,  the  Board  of  Su- 
pervisors of  the  County  of  Monroe  filed  with 
the  commission  a  petition  for  such  a  regulation 
of  the  flow  of  the  Genesee. 

In  anticipation  of  this  new  attack  the  Scenic 
and  Historic  Preservation  Societv,  which  the 
state,  by  contract  with  Mr.  Letchworth,  had 
invested  with  the  custody  and  care  of  Letch- 

,     worth  Park,  had  already  made  haste 
Defence  of  . 

the  park  by    to  its  defence.    In  January,  1908,  it 

its  custo-       had  addressed  to  the  Water  Supply 

dians  r^  •     •  11  j 

Commission  an  ably  prepared  memo- 
rial, asking  it  to  "  disapprove  of  any  plan  for 
constructing  a  dam  and  storage  reservoir  on  the 
Genesee  River  near  Portage,"  setting  forth  the 
considerations  that  bear  heavily  against  such 
plans,  —  such,  in  the  main,  as  these:  That  any 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK     395 

impairment  of  the  beauty  of  Letchworth  Park, 
reclaimed,  as  it  liad  been  by  Mr.  Letchworth, 
from  disfigurement  and  restored  to  its  natural 
charm,  during  forty-eight  years  of  labor  and 
care  and  at  a  cost  of  about  half  a  million  dol- 
lars, would  be  a  violation  of  the  trust  which  the 
state  has  accepted ;  that  the  diversion  of  water 
from  the  Portage  Falls  would  be  no  less  a  breach 
of  faith  ;  that  the  regulation  of  the  stream  for 
all  purposes  of  public  health  and  safety  can  be 
fully  accomplished  by  the  location  of  a  dam  as 
originally  recommended,  near  Mount  Morris  ; 
that  Lord  Kelvin,  the  highest  authority  on  the 
subject,  after  examining  the  conditions  on  the 
Genesee,  in  1902,  with  reference  to  the  devel- 
opment of  electric  power,  had  condemned  the 
plan  of  a  dam  at  Portage,  as  dangerous  and 
unnecessary,  and  declared  the  proper  method 
to  be  by  means  of  small  dams  at  successive 
points ;  that  geological  investigation  has  shown 
the  menace  of  a  storage  dam  to  be  especially 
great  at  Portage,  because  of  the  existence  of 
dangerous  deposits  of  quicksand,  underlying 
the  site  of  the  proposed  dam  ;  that  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's  experience  with  landslides  in  that  vicin- 
ity gives  warnings  which  it  would  be  madness 
to  disregard ;   that  the  large  lake   to    be   thus 


396     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH   ^ 

formed  could  not  be  of  uniform  level,  but  would 
be  so  drawn  down  in  the  summer  season  as  to 
lay  bare  a  number  of  square  miles  of  the  slime 
and  drainage  deposits  which  collect  at  the  bot- 
tom of  such  bodies  of  still  water,  creating  a 
culture-bed  of  noxious  germs. 

On  the  Monroe  County  petition  there  were 
hearings  before  the  State  Water  Supply  Com- 
mission, in  Rochester,  on  the  2d,  3d,  15th  and 
1 6th  of  February  and  the  2d  and  3d  of  March, 
191 1,  at  which    many   interested   parties  were 
present,  personally  or  by  representatives,  and 
the  questions  involved  were  very  fully  discussed. 
Mr.  Adelbert   Moot,  of  Buffalo,  appeared  as 
counsel  for  the  American  Scenic  and  Historic 
Preservation  Society,  and  for  a  number  of  per- 
sons joined  with  it  in  opposition  to  the  grant- 
ing of  the  petition.    The  argument  submitted 
by  Mr.  Moot  was  principally  a  legal  one,  based 
on  the  contention  that  the  state  is  placed  under 
the  obligations  of  a  contract  by  its  acceptance 
of  Mr.  Letchworth's  gift  of  his  estate,  subject 
to  the  condition  that  the  land  thus  conveyed  ' 
"  shall  be  forever  dedicated  to  the  purpose  of  a 
public  park  or  reservation  " ;  that  the  use  of  any 
part  of  it  for  another  purpose,  or  a  use  which 
impairs  its  value  as  a  public  park,  would  be  in 


GIFT  OF  LETCH  WORTH  PARK    397 

violation  of  that  clause  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  which  forbids  to  the  states 
the  enactment  of  laws  impairing  the  obligations 
of  contracts  ;  that  a  dam  for  the  storage  of  water 
above  the  Portage  Falls  can  be  built  nowhere 
outside  of  lands  covered,  on  both  sides  of  the 
Genesee  River,  by  Mr.  Letchworth's  deed  of 
conveyance  to  the  state ;  that  the  attempt  to 
construct  such  a  dam  may  be  arrested  by  the 
injunction  of  a  federal  court,  or,  if  permitted, 
may  deprive  the  state  of  its  title  to  Letchworth 
Park,  and  pass  it  to  Mr.  Letchworth's  natural 
heirs.  Mr.  Moot,  furthermore,  drew  attention 
to  evidence  of  an  existing  monopoly  in  the  con- 
trol of  electric  power  at  Rochester,  alike  from 
sources  on  the  Genesee  and  at  Niagara  Falls, 
so  dominating  the  situation  that  further  devel- 
opments of  power  must  inevitably  pass  under 
its  control.  He  traced,  in  fact,  the  whole  pro- 
ject of  water  storage  on  the  Genesee  to  that 
origin  of  motive  and  aim. 

The  decision  of  the  State  Water  Supply  Com- 
mission was  rendered  on  the  i6th  of  June,  191 1, 
by  three  of  its  members,  against  two.  Success  of 
denying  the  application  of  the  Board  the  defence 
of  Supervisors  of  Monroe  County.  In  an  ex- 
tended review  of  the  evidence  and  arguments 


398     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

submitted,  the  commissioners  recognized  the 
importance  of  the  legal  questions  raised,  but 
did  not  attempt  to  pass  judgment  on  them,  rest- 
ing their  decision  on  grounds  more  practical  and 
more  within  their  purview.  This  appears  in  the 
closing  paragraph  of  their  decision,  which  reads 
as  follows  :  "  On  account  of  the  impracticability 
of  regulating  the  flow  of  the  Genesee  River  and 
making  the  assessments  for  the  cost  thereof 
under  the  river  improvement  act,  and  the  wider 
objection  that  an  attempt  to  conserve  the  water 
powers  of  the  state  under  such  narrow  limits 
will  impede  the  greater  movement  in  behalf  of 
a  general  systematic  development  of  such  power 
for  the  genera]  welfare,  this  application  is  de- 
nied. 

So  far  as  concerned  any  supposable  survival 
of  rights  in  the  Genesee  River  Company  which 
could  still  be  a  menace  to  Letchworth  Park, 
they  were  extinguished  five  months  later,  on 
the  nth  of  November,  191 1,  when,  on  appli- 
cation of  the  attorney-general  of  the  state.  Jus- 
tice Chester,  of  the  supreme  court,  decreed  the 
forfeiture  and  annulment  of  that  company's 
charter. 

Two  years  before  his  death,  on  the  loth  of 
November,  1908,  Mr.  Letchworth  addressed  a 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH   PARK     399 

letter  to  the  American  Scenic  and  Historic  Pre- 
servation Society,  setting  forth  the  plans  he 
had  formed  for  the  further  improvement  of  the 
Letchworth  Park  estate,  and  which  the  Society 
had  expressed  a  wish  to  follow.  Since  his  death 
much  has  been  done,  generally  on  the  lines  in- 
dicated in  his  plans,  to  open  the  park  in  a 
larger  way  to  public  use  by  walks  and  drives, 
and  in  preparation,  also,  for  more  extensive 
plans.  The  chairman  of  the  Letchworth  Park 
Committee  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the 
American  Scenic  and  Historic  Preservation 
Society,  the  Honorable  Charles  M.  Dow,  of 
Jamestown,  New  York,  who  is  also,  by  ap- 
pointment of  the  society,  the  director  of  Letch- 
worth Park,  has  organized  and  conducted  this 
work,  and  gives  much  time  and  thought  to  the 
special  duties  accepted  by  him.  Miss  Caroline 
Bishop,  formerly  Mr.  Letchworth's  secretary, 
is  the  resident  superintendent  of  the  park. 

Convenience  in  visiting  the  park  has  been 
improved  greatly  by  a  recent  arrangement  with 
the  Erie  Railway  Company,  which  is  to  estab- 
lish a  station  at  the  west  end  of  the  bridge 
where  all  trains  will  stop  when  flagged,  and 
where  suitable  platforms  and  shelter  will  be 
provided. 


400     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

A  superb  design  for  the  future  enrichment 
in  interest  and  value  of  this  rare  tract  of  land 
The  pro-  devotes  it  mainly  to  the  creation  of 
jected  arbo-  a  great  arboretum,  which  will  hardly 
return  ^^  surpassed  in  the  world.    The  pro- 

ject, fully  adopted  by  the  trustees  of  the  custo- 
dial society  and  already  entered  upon,  has  been 
set  forth  interestingly  by  Mr.  Dow,  in  an  ar- 
ticle contributed  to  the  American  Review  of  Re- 
views and  published  in  its  February  issue,  1912. 
The  following  is  quoted  from  the  article  by 
permission  of  Mr.  Dow:  — 

The  American  Scenic  and  Historic  Preservation 
Society  has  now  under  way  and  will  soon  establish  a 
great  forest  arboretum  at  Letchworth  Park.  It  will 
be  a  collection  of  the  valuable  timber  trees  of  the 
world  and  will  be  the  first  of  its  kind,  and  its  contri- 
bution to  the  cause  of  forest  conservation  in  the 
United  States  will  be  of  great  economic  and  scientific 
value.  Those  who  visit  Letchworth  Park  after  its  ar- 
boretum has  been  established  will  see,  planted  singly 
and  in  groups,  specimens  of  every  important  tree  spe- 
cies with  which  experiment  under  local  conditions  of 
soil  and  climate  is  justified  by  a  reasonable  promise 
of  success.  Visitors  thus  will  have  ample  opportun- 
ity to  study  the  value  of  trees  of  many  kinds  for  or- 
namental planting  and  for  landscape  purposes.  But 
the  object  lesson  of  enormous  economic  significance. 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK    401 

which  will  lie  spread  before  their  eyes,  will  be  blocks 
of  planted  forest,  in  each  of  which  will  be  set  out  one 
or  more  important  commercial  kinds  of  trees.  In  each 
of  these  blocks,  irregular  in  form,  each  an  acre  or 
more  in  area,  and  set  out  with  due  regard  for  land- 
scape  and  color  effects,  planting  will  be  so  close  as 
rapidly  to  establish  forest  conditions,  so  that  Letch- 
worth  Park  will  contain  in  miniature  a  forest  of  a 
richness  and  variety  which  can  be  witnessed  nowhere 
else  on  the  globe.  When  this  experiment  is  com- 
pleted the  visitor  can  pass  over  winding  forest  paths, 
through  forest  growths  in  which  will  mingle  the  val- 
uable commercial  trees  of  the  South,  of  the  far  West, 
of  Europe,  and  from  little  known  quarters  of  the 
world,  which  find  at  Letchworth  Park  the  climate  and 
soil  suited  to  their  needs.   .   .   . 

The  principle  upon  which  the  Letchworth  Arbore- 
tum is  established  is  that  it  shall  consist  of  a  perma- 
nent collection  of  the  various  species  of  the  world's 
timber  trees  likely  to  thrive  in  this  northern  climate, 
planted  scientifically,  to  test  their  value  and  illustrate 
the  processes  of  development,  so  supplying  not  only 
knowledge  for  knowledge's  sake,  but  also  knowledge 
for  practical  use. 

It  is  intended  that  the  value  to  the  state  and  the 
nation  of  the  arboretum  will  not  consist  merely  in  a 
demonstration,  clear  to  every  eye,  of  the  results  which 
may  be  expected  from  forest  plantations  of  many  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  trees.    The  possibilities  of  the  arbore- 


402     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

turn  for  extending  exact  knowledge  of  tree  growth 
will  also  be  fully  developed.  In  each  of  these  minia- 
ture forests  systematic  and  skilled  observations  and 
records  will  be  made.  The  growth  of  the  trees  will 
be  measured  periodically,  their  liability  to  disease  will 
be  noted,  and  their  capacity  for  seed-bearing ;  their 
behavior  in  pure  stands  and  in  mixture,  their  influence 
upon  the  forest  floor,  and  other  practical  considera- 
tions bearing  upon  their  value  for  commercial  tree- 
planting,  will  be  carefully  observed  and  recorded.  By 
this  means  the  Letchworth  Park  Arboretum  will  aid 
materially  in  laying  an  exact  scientific  basis  for  the 
successful  extension  of  practical  forestry  in  the  United 
States.  Every  practical  step  will  be  taken,  not  only 
to  insure  results  of  the  highest  scientific  value  from 
forest  work  at  Letchworth  Park,  but  also  to  develop 
its  usefulness  as  an  object  lesson  to  all  park  visitors. 
Circulars  describing  in  plain  and  definite  language  the 
experiments  in  forestry  being  carried  on  will  be  made 
available  for  distribution,  while  labels  and  placards 
will  facilitate  the  identification  of  trees  in  the  arbore- 
tum. 

The  function  of  the  arboretum,  therefore,  is  obvi- 
ous. In  one  sense  it  is  a  living  museum;  in  another 
it  is  a  laboratory ;  but  it  is  both,  out  of  doors,  on  a 
large  scale,  and  the  discovery  or  demonstration  of  a 
fact  there,  within  a  small  area,  is  a  benefit  to  the 
whole  of  mankind. 

The  part  of  the  park  which  will  be  devoted  to  the 


GIFT  OF  LETCHWORTH  PARK    403 

arboretum  consists  of  about  five  hundred  acres,  for- 
merly used  for  agricultural  purposes,  being  well- 
drained,  cultivated,  open  meadows  and  fields  on  vari- 
ous levels,  bordered  by  either  planted  or  natural 
regenerated  forests.  In  the  already  existing  forests 
demonstrations  of  economic  planting  in  open  spaces 
will  be  made,  and  varieties  of  wild  flowers  will  be 
sown. 

In  addition  to  the  topographical  conditions,  the  at- 
mospheric conditions  at  Letchworth  Park  are  unusu- 
ally favorable  for  an  arboretum,  and  it  is  more  favor- 
ably located  in  this  respect  than  the  gardens  near 
large  cities,  which  are  affected  by  the  city  smoke  and 
vapors.  .  .  .  The  nearest  large  cities  to  Letchworth 
Park  are  Buffalo  and  Rochester,  each  about  sixty 
miles  away,  and  Hornell,  twenty  miles  to  the  south, 
and  the  atmospheric  conditions  are  ideal.  The  eleva- 
tion above  the  sea  level  is  about  thirteen  hundred  feet. 

Incident  to  the  arboretum  will  be  constructed  a 
fireproof  museum,  library,  and  educational  building, 
equipped  with  a  practical  working  forest  library  and 
planned  for  a  later  and  larger  development.   .   .   . 

The  Society  has  been  fortunate  in  attracting  the 
interest  of  Overton  W.  Price,  of  Washington,  D.C., 
vice-president  of  the  National  Conservation  Associa- 
tion, who  has  been  entrusted  with  the  establishment 
of  the  arboretum.  Mr.  Price  is  one  of  the  best-known 
living  foresters.  He  is  a  graduate  of  the  Forest  School 
at   Munich,  Bavaria,  and  his  training  in  forestry  was 


404     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

acquired  both  by  study  in  this  country  and  by  nearly 
three  years'  work  abroad,  under  the  direction  of  the 
late  Sir  Dietrich  Brandis,  former  Inspector-General 
of  the  Forests  of  India.  Mr.  Price  was  for  ten  years 
Associate  Forester  of  the  United  States,  and  has  been 
a  great  factor  in  the  conservation  movement.  Mr. 
GifFord  Pinchot,  former  Chief  Forester,  has  expressed 
his  deep  interest  in  the  Letchworth  Park  Arboretum 
and  his  willingness  to  aid  in  developing  its  fullest  ca- 
pacity for  public  usefulness. 

The  Committee  of  the  American  Scenic  and 
Historic  Preservation  Society  which  has  charge 
of  the  property  and  of  the  operations  of  the 
Society  in  connection  with  it,  is  composed  of 
eleven  gentlemen  from  various  parts  of  the 
state,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Honorable 
Charles  M.  Dow.  It  includes  Professor  L.  H. 
Bailey,  Dean  of  the  Agricultural  College  of 
Cornell  University.  The  president  of  the  So- 
ciety is  George  F.  Kunz,  Ph.D.,  Sc.D.,  New 
York  City. 


CHAPTER   X 

LETCHWORTH    VILLAGE LAST    YEARS 

In  his  weakened  state  Mr.  Letchworth  was 
much  disturbed  and  distressed  throughout  the 
year  1906,  by  the  menace  to  Glen  Iris  of  the 
Portage  Dam  project  and  his  anxious  study  of 
means  for  its  protection  and  preservation.  In 
March  his  secretary,  Miss  Bishop,  wrote  to 
Mr.  Johnston  :  "  Mr.  Letchworth  certainly  has 
not  gained  in  strength  this  winter,  and  in  some 
ways  he  seems  to  me  more  feeble.  He  has  not 
taken  his  rides  as  regularly  this  winter  as  last, 
and  often  it  is  an  effort  for  him  to  rise  from  his 
chair  or  the  couch  without  assistance.  Still,  he 
is  as  ambitious  as  ever."  A  little  later  she  re- 
ported :  "  He  seems  to  be  improving  some.  He 
does  good  work  yet,  but  it  takes  a  long  time 
to  accomplish  it.  His  correspondence  has  been 
large  of  late,  and  sometimes  he  says  that  the 
friends  will  have  to  excuse  him  from  writ- 
ing. 

On   the  nth  of  May,  after  the  passage  of 
the  Genesee  River  Company  Bill,  he,  himself. 


406     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

wrote  to  the  same  correspondent:  "The  scheme 
for  destroying  the  beautiful  scenery  here  was 
passed  through  the  legislature  with  only  three 
dissenting  votes.  It  was  done  by  what  must  be 
regarded  as  very  dishonorable  means.  I  am 
sure  the  members  of  the  legislature  did  not 
know  what  they  were  doing.  .  .  .  How  it  was 
done  matters  not  now.  The  deed  is  done  and 
only  awaits  the  governor's  approval  to  become 
the  law  of  the  land.  ...  If  he  signs  the  bill  it 
will  be  my  death-warrant,  and  I  shall  May  me 
down  and  die.'  Glen  Iris  will  only  remain  a 

•  Bright  summer  dream  of  white  cascade. 
Of  lake  and  wood  and  river.'  " 

After  his  conferences  with  the  American  Sce- 
nic and  Historic  Preservation  Society,  and  the 
determination  of  his  purpose  to  offer  the  Glen 
Iris  property  to  the  state  for  use  as  a  public 
park,  subject  to  the  condition  that  it  should  be 
under  the  control  and  jurisdiction  of  that  so- 
ciety, his  mind  was  greatly  eased.  The  last 
weeks  of  the  year  were  spent  by  him  in  Buffalo, 
for  convenience  in  transacting  the  business  in- 
cident to  his  conveyance  of  the  property,  and 
the  deed  of  conveyance  was  signed  on  the  last 
day  of  the  year. 


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LAST   YEARS  407 

The  ensuing  two  years  appear  to  have  been 
quite  uneventful  at  the  Glen,  except  in  the  pro- 
gress of  the  active  work  of  improve-   j^,.,  Letch- 
ment  in  the  park  which  Mr.  Letch-  worth's 

worth    had   permission   to  continue   ?°°  *°"® 
r      _  improve- 

to  the  end  of  his  Hfe.   Some  of  this   ment  of  the 

work,  done  in  1907,  is  thus  described  ^"^ 
in  the  report  of  the  American  Scenic  and  His- 
toric Preservation  Society  for  that  year:  — 

The  generous  motives  which  inspired  this  gift  to 
the  people  of  the  state  have  found  continued  expres- 
sion during  the  past  year  in  the  making  of  the  follow- 
ing improvements  :  The  roads,  woodland  drives,  paths, 
and  stairways  have  been  put  in  order.  .  .  .  Luncheon 
tables  and  benches  have  been  provided  in  pleasant 
nooks  for  basket  picnic  parties.  A  stairway  with  fre- 
quent landings  has  been  constructed  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  river  by  the  Upper  Fall.  A  bridge  with  masonry 
abutments  has  been  built  near  the  Cascade.  A  sub- 
stantial gallery  has  been  constructed  along  the  face  of 
the  cliff  opposite  the  Upper  Fall.  ...  A  broad  walk 
has  been  made  along  the  high  bank  of  the  gorge  be- 
tween the  Middle  and  the  Lower  Falls.  .  .  .  The  pic- 
nic grounds  at  the  Lower  Falls  have  been  improved 
by  the  erection  of  a  substantial  shelter  or  pavilion  for 
refuge  in  case  of  storm.  .  .  .  The  grove,  picnic  ground 
and  playgrounds  on  the  bluff  overlooking  the  Glen 
Iris  residence  grounds  have  been  developed,  etc. 


4o8     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Mr.  Letchworth  was  able  to  give  more  or  less 
of  personal  supervision  to  this  work,  and  he  as- 
sisted the  secretary  of  the  American  Scenic  and 
Historic  Preservation  Society  in  preparing  a  new 
map  of  the  park,  laying  out  on  it  the  lines  of  pro- 
jected new  drives  and  of  certain  areas  designed 
for  reforestation.  He  was  still  tasked  much  too 
heavily  by  an  extensive  correspondence  and  by 
the  urgency  of  his  desire  to  reduce  an  accumu- 
lated mass  of  letters  and  other  papers  to  order. 
We  may  say,  indeed,  that  he  escaped  from 
servitude  to  these  tasks  only  by  his  death. 

The  last  occasion  on  which  a  public  audience 
had  the  privilege  of  listening  to  any  words  from 
him  was  that  of  the  dedication  of  the  new 
Home  of  the  Children's  Aid  Society  of  Buf- 
falo, February  lo,  1908.  He  had  been  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  society  and  one  of  the  chief 
pillars  of  its  support.  It  grieved  him  that  he 
could  not  be  present  at  the  dedication,  and  he 
wrote  to  express  his  feeling. 

In  the  work  of  that  year  on  the  park  grounds 
a  serious  landslide  had  to  be  dealt  with,  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  river  west  of  the  Upper  Fall. 
"At  this  point,"  says  the  report  of  the  Ameri- 
can Scenic  and  Historic  Preservation  Society, 
"  at  right  angles  to  the  present  course  of  the 


LAST   YEARS  409 

Genesee  River,  geologists  recognize  a  pregla- 
cial  drift-filled  gorge.  Out  of  the  soft  and 
unstable  material  which  fills  this  gorge  the 
Degewanus  Brook  has  excavated  a  ravine.  .  .  . 
After  a  heavy  rainfall  the  high  sloping  banks 
of  this  ravine  began  to  settle.  On  one  side  the 
mass  movement  was  so  great  as  to  destroy 
trees."  And  the  movement  of  unstable  soil 
went  on  through  the  year  and  into  the  next 
spring.  As  remarked  in  the  Society's  report, 
"This  landslide  has  an  important  bearing  on 
the  safety  of  the  proposed  dam  and  storage  res- 
ervoir at  Portage,  as  the  unstable  soil  involved 
in  this  slide  is  of  the  same  character  as  the  drift 
deposits  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  upon 
which  the  projectors  of  the  Portage  dam  rely 
to  hold  back  the  waters  of  an  enormous  artifi- 
cial lake." 

A  visit  of  Governor  Hughes  to  the  park  in 
September  was  one  of  the  incidents  of  1 908  which 
gave  Mr.  Letchworth  much  pleasure.  A  matter 
which  gave  him  agreeable  occupation  of  mind 
that  year,  and  after,  was  the  planning  and  pre- 
paration, with  Mr.  Johnston  and  Miss  Bishop, 
of  a  new  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  collection 
of  poems  entitled  "Voices  of  the  Glen."  This, 
as  before  stated,  though  made  ready  by   Mr. 


410     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

Letchworth  in  his  lifetime,  was  not  published  un- 
til after  his  death.  It  seems  an  unjust  omission 
in  that  little  book  that  it  does  not  contain  the 
following  lines  which  Mr.  Letchworth  received 
from  Mr.  Johnston  on  his  eighty-sixth  birth- 
day, May  26,  1909  :  — 

**The  higher  thought  his  daily  food  ; 
The  evening  sun  still  shining  bright ; 
The  ancient  promise  still  holds  good,  — 
'At  eventide  it  will  be  light.'  " 

At  the  time  of  his  passing  this  eighty-sixth 
anniversary  of  his  birth,  the  legislature  of  his 
"Letch-         state  was  preparing  for  him  a  very 
worth  Vil-     distinguished  honor,  connected  with 
^^®  the    founding  of  a  great  institution 

in  the  eastern  part  of  the  state.  This  institution 
was  "  for  the  custodial  care  of  epileptics  of  un- 
sound mind,  exclusive  of  insane  epileptics,  and 
for  the  custodial  care  of  other  feeble-minded 
persons,  including  such  as  are  in  state  charita- 
ble institutions  or  are  supported  at  public  ex- 
pense and  require  custodial  care."  Two  years 
previously,  the  establishment  of  such  an  institu- 
tion had  been  decided  to  be  necessary,  and  an  act 
of  the  legislature  created  a  commission  to  select 
a  site.  The  commission,  having  the  president 
of  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  the  Honorable 


LAST   YEARS  411 

William  Rhinelander  Stewart,  at  its  head,  found 
a  noble  tract  of  land  in  Rockland  County, 
embracing  "some  1354  acres  of  good  farming 
and  woodland  for  the  main  site  and  a  mountain 
tract  of  640  acres  for  the  protection  of  the 
water  supply."  A  further  purchase  in  19 10 
added  several  hundred  acres  to  the  tract.  Every 
height  on  the  ground  chosen  is  said  to  com- 
mand views  of  the  Hudson,  from  High  Tor  to 
Stony  Point.  This  property  was  acquired  by 
the  state  for  what  was  known  in  the  first  in- 
stance as  "  The  Eastern  New  York  State  Cus- 
todial Asylum";  but  when.  May,  1909  (the 
constructive  work  on  the  ground  being  then 
well  advanced),  the  legislature  passed  an  act  to 
provide  for  the  management  of  the  asylum,  the 
first  section  of  the  act  read  as  follows:  — 

The  Eastern  New  York  State  Custodial  Asylum, 
established  by  chapter  three  hundred  and  thirty-one 
of  the  laws  of  nineteen  hundred  and  seven,  as  amended 
by  chapter  two  hundred  and  ninety-two  of  the  laws 
of  nineteen  hundred  and  eight,  is  hereby  continued  by 
the  name  and  title  of  "  Letchworth  Village,"  in  honor 
of  William  Pryor  Letchworth  of  Portage,  New  York, 
whose  efficient  public  services  in  behalf  of  the  feeble- 
minded, epileptic,  and  other  dependent  unfortunates 
the  state  desires  to  commemorate. 


412     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

On  signing  the  bill  which  gave  the  name  of 
Letchworth  Village  to  so  notable  an  institution 
of  public  beneficence.  Governor  Hughes  wrote 
personally  to  Mr.  Letchworth  the  following 
letter: — 

I  am  very  glad  indeed  that  your  name  has  been  as- 
sociated with  the  new  State  Custodial  Asylum,  and 
it  gave  me  much  pleasure  to  sign  the  Bill  establishing 
"Letchworth  Village."  This  will  serve  to  aid  in  per- 
petuating the  memory  of  your  important  relation  to 
the  charities  of  the  state,  and  constitute  a  recognition, 
though  only  to  a  slight  extent,  of  the  obligation  of 
our  people  for  the  services  you  have  rendered.  It  must 
afford  you  the  greatest  gratification  in  these  later  years 
to  realize  the  progress  that  has  been  made  in  the  care 
of  dependents,  and  to  be  assured  of  the  high  esteem 
in  which  your  own  share  in  the  work  of  development 
is  held  by  all  those  who  are  devoting  themselves  to 
our  rapidly  extending  philanthropies. 

A  few  days  previously  Mr.  Stewart,  chairman 
of  the  commission  which  chose  the  location  of 
the  village,  had  written  to  Mr.  Letchworth  :  — 

Would  it  not  be  possible  for  you  to  visit  the  site 
this  month  or  in  June  ?  The  trip  will  not  be  a  very 
difficult  one,  and  the  commission  could  have  no  greater 
satisfaction  and  compensation  —  now  that  its  work  is 
practically  completed  —  than  the  pleasure  of  showing 


LAST  YEARS  413 

it  to  the  man  whose  name  the  new  institution  will 
always  bear.  .  .  .  On  Friday  of  last  week  Mr.  Kirk- 
bride  [of  the  commission  and  afterwards  secretary  of 
the  board  of  managers  of  Letchworth  Village]  and  I, 
with  some  friends,  visited  the  site  and  revelled  in  its 
natural  beauties. 

Such  a  visit  would  have  given  pleasure  be- 
yond expression  to  the  invalid  at  Glen  Iris  ;  but 
the  journey  was  more  than  he  could  think  of 
undertaking. 

In  an  address  before  the  National  Associ- 
ation for  the  Study  of  Epilepsy  and  the  Care 
and  Treatment  of  Epileptics,  at  its  meeting  in 
Baltimore,  May,  1910,  Mr.  Franklin  B.  Kirk- 
bride,  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Managers  of 
Letchworth  Village,  gave  a  comprehensive  state- 
ment of  the  whole  purpose  and  design  of  the 
institution,  from  which  the  following  quotation 
will  not  be  out  of  place  in  this  connection:  — 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  there  are  already  in 
New  York  four  state  institutions  caring  for  the  epi- 
leptic and  feeble-minded,  they  are  as  yet  inadequately 
provided  for,  and  the  village,  first  of  all,  will  relieve 
the  congestion  of  these  institutions,  which  to-day  are 
overcrowded  and  unable  to  meet  the  demands  made 
upon  them.  Letchworth  Village  will  admit  both  sexes 
of  all  ages,  excluding  the  insane  only.    The  ultimate 


414     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

capacity  will  be  twenty-five  hundred  inmates.  From 
Craig  Colony  will  come  patients  who  do  not  belong 
there,  but  who  could  be  received  nowhere  else ;  from 
almshouses  will  come  others;  and  from  the  long  wait- 
ing-lists will  come  many  more.  .  .  .  Letchworth 
Village,  however,  will  be  more  than  a  custodial  re- 
treat. It  will  be  a  laboratory  where  the  causes  of  ab- 
normal and  arrested  development  will  be  studied,  with 
the  advantage  of  abundant  clinical  material ;  and  it 
will  afFord  a  unique  opportunity  for  research  and  in- 
vestigation in  cooperation  with  the  schools  and  col- 
leges of  New  York  City.  In  the  schools  at  the  village, 
the  training  of  teachers  for  the  backward  and  abnormal 
will  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  instruction  of  the  in- 
mates. The  village  .  .  .  is  to  be  a  community  where, 
through  segregation  and  classification,  little  groups  of 
people  will  live  separated  from  each  other,  but  units 
in  the  larger  settlement.  .  .  .  The  groups  to  be  es- 
tablished this  autumn  [1910]  will  closely  resemble 
those  at  Templeton,  Massachusetts,  and  the  first  pa- 
tients will  be  feeble-minded  cases  fitted  for  farm  life. 

Letchworth  Village  received  its  first  inmates 
—  thirty-two  in  number — on  the  nth  of  July, 
191 1.  Two  farm  groups  of  buildings  had  then 
been  constructed,  with  a  dormitory  capacity  of 
one  hundred  beds.  At  the  time  of  this  writing 
(November,  191 1),  the  inmate  population  is 
fifty-nine,  as  stated  in  a  note  from  the  secretary 


LAST  YEARS  415 

of  the  board  of  managers,  Mr.  Kirkbride,  who 
adds  the  remark:  "We  expect  [the  beds]  will 
all  be  filled  within  a  very  few  weeks."  This  will 
fulfil  the  plans  announced  in  the  second  annual 
report  of  the  managers,  made  in  January,  191 1, 
which  stated  :  "  Provision  will  be  made  for  one 
hundred  |feeble-minded  men  during  191 1.  No 
further  admissions  will  be  made  until  the  build- 
ings necessary  for  the  administration  of  the  vil- 
lage and  the  care  of  employes  and  patients  are 
completed  and  equipped." 

Speaking  in  this  report  of  the  death  of  Mr. 
Letchworth,  the  managers  say  :  — 

Mr.  Letchworth  took  a  keen  interest  in  the  village 
from  its  inception,  and  was  kept  constantly  in  touch 
with  its  progress  by  correspondence  and  visits  to  Glen 
Iris.  His  suggestions  were  invariably  helpful  and  in- 
spiring, and  his  love  of  beauty,  his  gentleness,  and  his 
delightful  sense  of  humor,  coupled  with  his  indomit- 
able faith  in  mankind,  always  sent  one  away  from  Glen 
Iris  with  renewed  courage  and  an  increased  realiza- 
tion of  the  possibilities  of  achievement. 

The  same  report  makes  the  following  an- 
nouncement of  the  selection  and  appointment 
of  the  superintendent  of  the  village  :  — 

Dr.  Charles  S.  Little,  formerly  superintendent  of 
the  New  Hampshire  School  for  Feeble-minded  Child- 


4i6     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

ren,was  elected  superintendent  of  Letchworth  Village 
and  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  his  new  duties  on 
July  I,  19 10.  He  was  selected,  after  a  competitive 
examination,  from  the  list  of  successful  candidates 
submitted  by  the  State  Civil  Service  Commission.  Dr. 
Little's  name  headed  the  list.  The  high  standing  of 
the  New  Hampshire  school,  of  which  he  was  the  first 
and  only  superintendent,  is  sufficient  demonstration 
of  his  fitness  for  the  even  more  responsible  post  to 
which  he  has  been  called. 

Though  confined  to  his  home,  with  inability 
for  much  unassisted  movement  even  there,  Mr. 
The  last  Letchworth,  in  1 909,  was  still  a  busily 
two  years  occupied  man,  and  continued  to  be 
of  hfe  gQ  ^Qj.  another  year.  And  he  was  kept 

in  fresh  remembrance  by  his  younger  and  still 
active  fellow  workers  in  the  fields  of  public 
charity  and  social  reform.  When  the  State  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Correction  was  assem- 
bled at  Albany,  November  18-20,  1909,  it  sent 
him  this  message:  — 

That  the  officers  and  members  of  the  Tenth  New 
York  State  Conference  of  Charities  and  Correction, 
assembled  in  the  Senate  Chamber  in  the  Capitol  at 
Albany,  on  Thursday,  November  18,  1909,  send  affec- 
tionate greetings  to  Dr.  William  Pryor  Letchworth, 
of  Portage,   the    first   president    of  the   Conference. 


LAST  YEARS  417 

They  are  not  unmindful  of  the  inspiration  they  early 
derived  from  the  lifelong  services  to  humanity  ren- 
dered by  Dr.  Letchworth.  In  his  venerable  retirement 
he  is  not  forgotten,  and  our  earnest  wishes  for  his 
future  health  and  happiness  we  now  convey  to  him. 

A  few  days  after  receiving  this  affectionate 
and  grateful  message  Mr.  Letchworth  suffered 
an  accident  which  might  easily  have  ended  his 
life.  He  was  being  taken  on  his  customary  after- 
noon drive  in  the  park,  when  something  caused 
the  horse  to  begin  suddenly  backing  and  turn- 
ing. What  happened  then  was  described  by  Miss 
Bishop,  in  a  letter  written  next  day :  "  There  is 
a  steep  but  short  bank  on  one  side  of  the  road, 
down  which  the  carriage  went,  and  Mr.  Letch- 
worth and  Mrs.  R were  tipped  out.    Mr. 

Letchworth  wore  his  thick,  loose  fur  coat,  and 
fell  in  the  leaves  ;  otherwise  the  result  might 
have  been  very  serious.  .  .  .  Mr.  L.'s  face  was 
scratched  a  little  by  the  bushes,  but  he  seems 
to  be  suffering  most  from  the  jarring  of  his  left 
shoulder."  There  must  have  been  a  quite  dan- 
gerous shock  sustained,  which  commonly  would 
shorten  life  in  a  man  of  Mr,  Letchworth's  age 
and  physical  frailty  ;  but  it  may  not  have  done 
so  in  his  case.  He  lived  almost  exactly  a  year 
after  this  occurred. 


4i8     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

The  present  writer  visited  him  in  the  follow- 
ing spring  and  found  him  feeble  but  comfort- 
able, and  manifesting  quite  perfect  clearness  of 
mind.  His  memory  seemed  little  impaired,  if 
at  all,  so  far  as  concerned  the  distant  past.  In- 
formation that  has  been  useful  in  this  biography, 
on  many  matters,  was  obtained  in  conversations 
at  that  time. 

It  was  never  out  of  his  thought,  however, 
that  the  days  left  to  him  could  not  be  many. 
In  a  letter  written  May  17,  1 9 10,  he  said  :  "  I  am 
expecting  my  brother  Josiah  and  his  wife  here 
on  Saturday  next  to  spend  a  day  or  two.  It  is 
a  long  time  since  I  have  seen  them,  and  this 
may  be  the  last  time  that  we  shall  meet." 

On  the  19th  of  September  the  ceremony  of 
the  unveiling  of  the  bronze  statue  of  Mary 
Jemison,  near  her  grave  and  monument,  in  the 
Old  Indian  Council  House  ground,  was  per- 
formed, as  related  in  a  previous  chapter,  and 
Mr.  Letchworth  was  fortunately  able  to  be 
present. 

The  state  election  of  November  8,  this  year, 
was  made  especially  interesting  to  him  by  the 
submission  to  the  people  of  a  constitutional 
amendment  relating  to  the  acceptance  of  Mrs. 
Harriman's  proposed  gift  of  lands  in  connec- 


LAST  YEARS  419 

tion  with  a  purchase  of  other  lands  for  a  public 
park  on  the  Hudson  River.  "Although  very 
lame,"  he  wrote  two  days  afterwards  to  Mr. 
Johnston,  "I  managed  to  go  to  the  polls  on 
Tuesday  to  cast  my  vote  for  the  constitutional 
amendment  anent  the  proposed  Harriman  Park. 
I  trust  that  the  Palisades  are  now  safe  and  that 
the  Harriman  gift  will  go  to  the  people." 

His  last  letter  to  Mr.  Johnston,  dictated  to 
his  stenographer,  but  signed  by  him  with  a  firm 
hand,  was   written  on   the   28th   of  ^.  ,. 

November,  showing  perfect  clearness  stroke  of 
of  mind  and  the  command  of  all  its  *^®^*^ 
faculties.  Three  days  later,  at  seven  o'clock  in 
the  evening  of  Thursday,  December  i,  1910, 
the  call  of  death  came  to  him  and  he  passed 
through  the  curtained  gate  which  opens  and 
closes  at  that  call. 

On  the  morning  of  that  day,  as  was  told  by 
Miss  Bishop  at  a  memorial  meeting  held  soon 
after,  at  Castile,  "he  had  pencilled  on  a  slip  of 
paper  a  few  lines  suggestive  of  a  plan  which  he 
thought  might  be  of  assistance  to  boys  and  girls 
seeking  employment.  A  matter  had  recently 
been  brought  to  his  attention  showing  the  dan- 
gers to  which  young  persons  are  sometimes  ex- 
posed when  they  go  out  from   their  homes  to 


420     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

make  their  way  among  strangers."  Thus  the 
child-saving  thought  —  the  anxious  care  for  the 
young  —  was  in  his  mind  to  the  very  last. 

That  night  he  partook  of  his  usual  light  sup- 
per, and  said,  presently,  that  he  would  take  a 
rest.  His  nurse  assisted  him  to  his  bed  in  an 
adjoining  room,  and  had  left  him  but  a  few 
moments  when  she  heard  some  sound  which 
caused  her  to  return.  She  found  that  in  those 
moments  his  life  had  come  to  its  end.  He  had 
left  it  as  quietly  as  if  passing  into  sleep. 

Funeral  services  at  Glen  Iris  were  held  on 
the  following  Sunday.  The  remains  were  then 
taken  to  the  residence  of  his  brother  Josiah,  in 
Buffalo,  for  burial  in  the  Forest  Lawn  Ceme- 
tery, preceding  which  there  were  impressive 
services  on  Tuesday  in  the  chapel  of  the  First 
Presbyterian  Church,  conducted  by  the  pastor, 
the  Reverend  Dr.  Andrew  V.  V.  Raymond,  as- 
sisted by  the  Reverend  Dr.  S.  S.  Mitchell,  former 
pastor  of  the  church,  and  by  the  Reverend  Rich- 
ard W.  Boynton,  pastor  of  the  First  Unitarian 
Church. 

In  a  letter  to  his  brother  Josiah,  written  on 
the  1st  of  July,  1910,  Mr.  Letchworth  had  ex- 
pressed his  wishes  with  regard  to  the  disposition 
of  his  remains.  "  I  would  like  my  remains,"  he 


LAST  YEARS  421 

wrote,  "to  be  placed  in  a  rough-hewn  stone  sar- 
cophagus, after  the  general  design  of  that  illus- 
trated in  the  sixth  edition  of  the  life  of  Mary 
Jemison,  page  274.  The  sarcophagus  I  desire 
to  have  taken  from  the  Blue  Stone  Quarry  on 
the  Genesee  River,  a  few  miles  above  Portage- 
ville.  I  desire  that  on  the  ground  above  it  there 
be  laid  a  perfectly  plain  slab,  after  the  style  of 
that  shown  in  the  enclosed  illustration  taken 
from  the  April  number  of  Country  Life  in  Amer- 
ica^ page  73  I,  upon  which  slab  shall  be  inscribed 
my  name  and  the  date  of  my  birth  and  decease, 
only.  If  practicable,  I  desire  that  the  slab  be 
taken  from  the  hard  rock  of  the  upper  strata  of 
Table  Rock  at  the  Lower  Falls,  which,  if  I  re- 
member rightly,  is  from  twelve  to  sixteen  inches 
thick.  I  think  this  slab  had  best  be  placed  di- 
rectly upon  the  surface  of  the  ground,  without 
any  masonry  underneath  it,  the  inclination  to 
be  the  same  as  the  ground  surrounding  it." 

Excepting  in  the  matter  of  taking  a  slab  of 
stone  from  Table  Rock,  at  the  Lower  Falls, 
which  Mr.  Letchworth  had  desired  "it  practi- 
cable," these  wishes  were  carried  precisely  into 
effect  during  the  summer  which  followed  his 
death.  The  removal  of  such  a  mass  of  stone 
from  the  position  of  Table  Rock  in  the  gorge 


422     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

at  the  Lower  Falls  was  decided  to  be  impracti- 
cable, while  a  slab  of  equal  quality  was  found  in 
the  bed  of  the  river,  a  little  above  the  Middle 
Falls,  and  more  closely  associated,  therefore, 
with  the  life  it  would  commemorate.  The  in- 
scription on  it  is  as  follows  :  — 

WILLIAM    PRYOR    LETCHWORTH 

Born,  Fifth  Month,  26,  1823 
Died,  Twelfth  Month,  i,  1910 

The  importance  that  had  been  given  to  the 
life  now  ended,  by  the  large  fruitfulness  of  its 
labors  in  social  good,  was  recognized  widely  by 
the  newspaper  press  of  the  country,  in  its  an- 
nouncements of  the  death,  and  even  more  widely 
in  affectionate  and  reverent  expressions  which 
came  in  great  numbers  of  letters  and  official 
communications  from  societies,  to  Glen  Iris  and 
to  Mr.  Josiah  Letchworth,  in  Buffalo.  "The 
dear,  dear  man  is  gone  !  my  heart  aches  to  think 
of  it,"  said  one.  "  I  have  never  known  such 
another  man,"  exclaimed  a  second.  "His  death 
brings  to  me  almost  as  much  sorrow  as  the 
death  of  a  parent,"  wrote  a  prominent  journal- 
ist, who  added:  "He  seemed  to  be  a  sort  of 
patriarch  among  the  people  of  Western  New 


LAST  YEARS  423 

York."  In  a  private  letter,  the  secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Managers  of  Letchworth  Village 
wrote:  "  I  feel  that  in  our  work  at  this  end  of 
the  state  the  mere  fact  that  Mr.  Letch  worth's 
name  is  associated  with  the  Village  will  be  a 
tremendous  help  in  keeping  us  up  to  the  stand- 
ards and  ideals  for  which  Mr.  Letchworth  has 
stood  during  all  his  life." 

The  New  York  State  Board  of  Charities,  at  its 
next  stated  meeting  (January  11,  191 1)  after  Mr. 
Letchworth's  death,  expressed  its  estimate  of 
his  long  service  as  a  Commissioner  of  the  Board 
for  nearly  twenty-four  years,  and  as  its  presi- 
dent for  ten  years,  in  an  extended  inscription 
on  its  minutes,  partly  in  these  words:  — 

He  entered  the  Board  early  in  its  history,  and  dur- 
ing his  long  term  of  service  exerted  a  controlling  in- 
fluence in  the  development  of  its  policies  and  methods 
of  procedure  in  the  supervision  of  the  charitable  in- 
stitutions of  the  State.  As  he  was  of  a  cautious  and 
deliberative  temperament  he  impressed  upon  the  prac- 
tical operations  of  the  Board  a  conservative  and  pa- 
ternal attitude  towards  the  public  charities,  which  had 
its  expression  in  friendly  and  advisory  conference  with 
the  officers  and  managers  of  these  institutions. 

His  personal  devotion  to  the  service  of  the  Board 
was   of  the   most  exemplary  character.   He  gave  his 


424     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

time,  his  thought  and  his  means  cheerfully,  and  at  all 
times,  often  at  great  personal  sacrifice,  to  the  duties 
then  imposed  upon  the  individual  commissioners. 
Many  of  these  duties,  such  as  close  inspection  of 
almshouses  of  that  time,  were  extremely  unpleasant; 
but  he  never  shrank  from  the  most  exhaustive  inspec- 
tions of  these  and  many  similar  public  charities,  and 
drev/  from  them  valuable  lessons  which  resulted  in 
the  adoption  of  important  remedial  measures.  In  his 
zeal  to  improve  the  condition  of  dependent  children 
he  visited  not  only  almshouses,  but  also  all  of  the 
orphan  asylums  and  children's  homes  in  the  State. 

This  appreciative  tribute  from  the  official 
body  which  had  the  fullest  knowledge  of  his 
work  goes  on  to  review  its  "  notable  features," 
in  the  removal  of  children  from  poorhouses, 
and  in  labors  for  the  better  care  and  treatment 
of  the  insane,  of  epileptics,  of  the  idiotic  and 
the  feeble-minded, —  all  of  which  has  been  set 
forth  in  this  book. 


CHAPTER   XI 


THE    MAN 


The  Story  of  Mr.  Letchworth's  life,  as  told  in  the 
preceding  pages,  is  almost  wholly  a  story  of  noble 
labors ;  and  inasmuch  as  he  spent  it  ^  ^fg  ^f 
in  labor,  it  could  not  be  other  than  labor 
that.  Many  lives  are  so  spent ;  but  his  differed 
from  most  of  them  in  the  motives  and  objects 
of  his  life-absorbing  work.  He  toiled  for  the 
bettering  of  conditions  among  the  unfortunates 
of  his  part  of  the  world,  as  others  toil  for  the 
rewards  that  come  back  to  the  laborer's  self,  in 
luxuries  and  gratifications  that  go  with  wealth, 
or  in  the  honors  of  public  life.  To  the  extent 
that  he  had  what  might  be  called  wealth,  in  a 
comparative  sense,  it  can  almost  be  said  that  he 
took  to  himself  no  luxuries  from  it  and  little 
of  the  gratifications  that  depend  on  wealth.  He 
gave  himself  the  great  indulgence  of  one  great 
Glen  Iris;  but  he  held  that  only  as  indulgence 
a  life  tenant,  preparing  it  always  for  public  pos- 
session and  use.  Meantime  its  atmosphere  of 
beauty  and  peace  and  happiness,  and  the  simple 


426     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

hospitalities  it  enriched,  and  the  days  of  joy  it 
brought  into  his  friendships,  —  these  seemed 
to  fill  the  whole  measure  of  self-seeking  in  his 
desires. 

It  is  because  he  made  so  little  of  the  per- 
sonal side  of  his  life,  and  took  into  it  so  much 
from  the  other  life  around  him,  that  the  account 
of  it  is  meagre  in  biographical  incident.  What 
he  did  has  no  dramatic  quality  for  a  reader's 
entertainment;  but  its  high  purpose  and  its 
measureless  worth  offer  much  more  than  enter- 
tainment to  a  thoughtful  mind.  If  these  give  an 
undertone  of  seriousness  to  the  biography,  they 
_.  carry  through  it  overtones  of  happi- 

tones  of  ness,  none  the  less.  Mr.  Letch- 
happiness  worth  was  one  of  the  happiest  of 
men;  in  his  benevolent  serenity  of  temper;  in 
the  warmth  of  fellow-feeling  which  made  man- 
kind interesting  to  him  ;  in  his  many  friend- 
ships ;  in  the  assurance  he  could  feel  of  holding 
a  high  place  in  public  esteem ;  and,  above  all,  in 
the  satisfying  fruits  of  his  work.  In  much  of  the 
work  itself  we  cannot  suppose  that  he  found 
enjoyment,  full  as  it  was  of  distressing  scenes, 
painful  experiences,  revolting  matters  of  inves- 
tigation; but  certainly  there  was  joy  to  him 
of  high  quality  in  the  great  results   of  good 


THE  MAN  427 

that  he  could  see  to  be  coming  from  what  he 
did. 

No  man  enjoyed  friendships  more  than  he, 
and  he  accumulated  them  richly  as  his  life  went 
on,  especially  after  he  came  into  ex-  ^ccumu- 
tensive  relations  with  the  charity  lated 
workers  of  his  own  state  and  of  the  friendships 
country  at  large.  To  find  a  spirit  kindred  to 
his  own  in  earnestness  and  sincerity  was  to  find 
a  new  friend  ;  and  he  found  so  many!  His  cor- 
respondence with  the  colleagues  and  associates 
who  came  into  really  close  and  sympathetic 
participation  with  any  part  of  his  work  gives 
many  charming  evidences  of  the  warm  feeling 
that  grew  between  them.  Especially  in  the  later 
years,  when  the  elder  co-workers  with  him  were 
being  succeeded  by  a  younger  corps,  —  in  state 
charity  boards,  in  national  and  state  conferences, 
in  the  heads  of  institutions  and  societies,  —  the 
affectionate  deference  and  reverence  with  which 
these  junior  friends  wrote  to  him  is  beautifully 
significant  of  the  feeling  he  inspired. 

One  who  looks  through  his  correspondence 
can  see  the  sources  of  the  great  influence  he  came 
to  exercise  in  the  philanthropic  field.  While  he 
specialized  his  own  main  undertakings  in  that 
field,  he  never  specialized  his  interest  in  its  sub- 


428     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

jects  and  objects.  He  could  always  enter  with 
warm  sympathy  and  understanding  into  the 
Sources  of  feelings  of  those  who  shared  his 
great  influ-  benevolent  spirit,  but  were  moved 
e°ce  ^y    j|.  Qj^    other   special  lines    than 

his ;  and  he  was  never  so  busy  in  his  own  burden- 
some tasks  that  he  could  not  give  attention  to 
these  collateral  tasks,  to  acquaint  himself  with 
them  and  render  help  in  them  when  it  was 
sought.  It  was  sought  more  and  more,  as  the 
all-roundness  of  his  study  of  the  problems  of 
philanthropy  and  the  large  helpfulness  of  his 
disposition  became  known.  The  people  who 
struggled  with  difficulties  and  discouragements 
In  various  undertakings  of  good  work,  and  who 
came  to  him  for  counsel  or  assistance,  were  very 
many ;  and  very  many  were  the  grateful  ac- 
knowledgments of  wise  advice  and  effectual  help 
that  he  had  in  return.  Quite  often,  too,  there 
had  been  a  purse  as  well  as  a  pen  in  the  helping 
hand. 

Those,  too,  who  worked  for  him,  as  well  as 
those  who  worked  with  him,  were  invited,  as  we 
Affection  of  ^^Y  say,  always,  to  give  friendship  a 
employes  place  in  the  relations  between  em- 
ployer and  employed,  and  lasting  ties  were 
formed  by  whatever  in  their   natures   could  re- 


THE  MAN  429 

spond  to  his.  The  writer  of  this  has  come  upon 
many  disclosures  of  feeling  between  him  and 
his  employes,  either  in  business  at  Buffalo  or  in 
home  and  farm  service  at  Glen  Iris,  and  they 
testify  alike  to  his  interest  in  them  and  to  their 
filial  attitude  of  affection  toward  him.  A  very 
few  weeks  before  he  died  he  received  a  letter, 
which  must  have  given  him  much  happiness, 
from  one  who  had  served  for  many  years,  long 
before,  in  the  establishment  of  Pratt  &  Letch- 
worth;  who  had  afterwards  established  himself 
prosperously  in  business,  and  who  had  been  a 
useful,  excellent  citizen  in  all  the  relations  of  life. 
Among  other  things  the  writer  said  to  him  this: 

You  will  never  know  the  debt  of  gratitude  I  owe  to 
you,  and  to  our  Heavenly  Father  for  bringing  me  into 
touch  with  you  many  years  ago.  .  .  .  My  life  has 
been  different  ever  since  I  met  you  and  came  under 
your  helpful  influence.  The  fact  that  I  have  been  able 
to  pass  the  good  things  I  received  from  you  on  to 
others,  and  they,  in  turn,  to  others,  tends  to  make  one 
feel  that  his  life  has  not  been  lived  in  vain.  Your  in- 
fluence over  my  life  has  been  great,  and  I  feel  that 
I  am  a  truer,  better  man,  husband  and  father,  for  having 
been  under  your  inspiration. 

Since  Mr.  Letchworth's  death,  the  writer  of 
this   high   tribute  to  his  influence  has   related 


430     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

a  most  interesting  bit  of  antecedent  story,  in 
a  letter  addressed  to  Mr.  Rowland,  the  ad- 
An  incident  i^i^^istrator  of  Mr.  Letchworth's 
that  reveals  estate.  Writing  to  express  thanks 
the  man  f^^  ^  copy  of  the  new  edition  of 
"  Voices  of  the  Glen,"  and  for  the  return  to 
him  from  Glen  Iris  of  a  package  of  his  let- 
ters, he  adds : — 

I  do  not  know  that  you  know  the  fact,  but  in  the 
latter  part  of  April,  1866,  while  I  was  a  newsboy  on 
the  Erie  Railroad,  Mr.  Letchworth  was  a  passenger 
on  the  morning  train,  on  his  way  to  Glen  Iris,  and 
he  happened  to  observe  that  I  was  courteous  to  some 
passengers  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  car.  When  I 
came  to  him  he  bought  some  oranges  from  me  ;  then 
made  inquiry  as  to  my  school  advantages,  and  took  my 
father's  name  and  inquired  the  nature  of  his  business. 
I  thought  at  first  that  he  was  a  professor  in  some 
large  school  and  interested  to  find  out  if  my  father 
was  in  a  position  to  give  me  additional  education. 
Then  he  inquired  what  I  was  to  do  in  life ;  and  the 
result  was  that  I  returned  to  Buffalo  the  following 
Monday  morning,  and,  as  you  know,  was  with  him 
for  over  thirteen  years.  For  a  number  of  years  he 
kindly  asked  me  to  share  a  room  with  him  in  the 
Bank  Building,  and  his  helpful,  watchful  care  of  me, 
and  the  most  excellent  advice  given  at  that  time,  were 
a  great  help  to   me   in   my  early  days.    I  cannot  tell 


THE  MAN  431 

you  how  much  I  have  thought,  in  the  years  which 
have  passed,  of  this  very  pleasant  association.  He 
was  indeed  a  "father  unto  me,"  and  I  am  indebted  to 
him  for  the  start  which  I  got  in  life. 

We  may  be  sure  that  the  "  helpful  influence  " 
and  the  "  inspiration"  which  the  writer  quoted 
above  was  so  conscious  of  having  received  from 
Mr.  Letchworth  came  in  the  largest  measure 
from  the  example  of  his  employer's  character 
and  life.  The  sense  of  responsibility  for  that 
influence  of  example  was  singularly  keen  and 
held  rare  authority  in  Mr.  Letchworth's  mind, 
ruhng  his  conduct  with  scrupulous  care.  This 
was  finely  illustrated  in  the  circumstances  un- 
der which  he  banished  wine  from  his 

.,        T-»      •        u-  1     •      T-  Why  wine 

table.    During  his  travels  in  iLurope,   ^as  ban- 
in  1858,  he  had  su fleered  much  from   ished  from 

J  .    ,  .  J    1         .  .  his  table 

drinking  deleterious  waters  in  many 

places,  and  was  finally  persuaded  to  resort  to 
wine.  Until  that  time  he  had  followed  the 
teaching  and  example  of  his  father  in  total  ab- 
stinence from  alcoholic  drinks  of  everv  nature 
whatsoever  ;  but  he  found  a  comfort  and  benefit 
from  the  wines,  in  this  experience  of  them, 
which  led  him  to  modify  his  views  and  the 
previous  habits  of  his  life.  He  brought  home 
some  varieties  of  choice  quality  and  introduced 


432     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

their  use  at  his  table  for  a  time.  But  presently 
there  came  to  his  knowledge  what  seemed  to 
be  a  resulting  influence  which  troubled  his 
mind.  Among  the  tenants  of  his  land  was  a 
young  mechanic  who  had  been  enslaved  by  the 
appetite  for  intoxicants,  and  who  gave  himself 
up  to  days  of  drunkenness  from  time  to  time. 
Mr.  Letchworth  had  tried  often  to  rouse  resist- 
ing energies  in  him,  but  with  no  lasting  effect ; 
and  now  there  came  a  report  of  his  saying,  in 
one  of  his  outbreaks  :  "  Mr.  Letchworth  talks 
to  me  about  my  drinking;  but  he  drinks  wine 
with  his  friends,  and  I  do  only  about  the  same. 
I  think  as  much  of  my  friends  as  Mr.  Letch- 
worth does  of  his."  After  the  latter  had  been 
told  of  this  remark  there  was  no  more  wine  on 
his  table  or  wine-drinking  in  his  house.  He 
went  to  the  young  man,  told  him  that  no- 
thing intoxicating  should  be  used  by  himself  or 
offered  to  his  guests  thereafter,  and  asked  him 
to  follow  that  example,  —  far  better,  as  it  was, 
than  the  one  he  had  accepted  before.  The  im- 
pression made  on  the  man  was  profound.  He 
gave  the  promise  that  he  would  do  as  Mr. 
Letchworth  had  done,  and  the  promise  was 
kept.  He  married,  reared  a  well-educated  fam- 
ily, accumulated  property  and  earned  universal 


THE  MAN  433 

respect.  In  the  old  age  of  Mr.  Letchworth  there 
can  hardly  have  been  another  reminiscence  that 
brought  him  more  happiness  than  this. 

To  illustrate  another  side  of  his  careful 
thoughtfulness  for  those  who  formed  his  staff 
at  Glen  Iris,  the  following  letter  has  .  ., 
interest.  It  was  written  by  him,  in  characteris- 
October,  1876,  to  a  father,  in  Ger-  tic  incident 
many,  whose  son,  a  young  man,  had  been  em- 
ployed at  the  Glen  for  some  years.  It  caught 
the  attention  of  the  biographer  as  he  ran  through 
a  letter  book  of  that  period,  and  seemed  to 
represent  an  impulse  of  kindliness  which  would 
not  have  moved  many  busy  men. 

Your  son,  who  has  been  in  my  employ  for  the  past 
seven  years,  excepting  a  short  period  of  two  months, 
and  who  has  been  during  a  large  portion  of  the  time 
a  member  of  my  household,  having  signified  to  me  his 
intention  of  visiting  his  parents,  brothers,  sisters,  and 
friends  in  the  Fatherland,  it  has  seemed  to  me  that  it 
would  afford  you  satisfaction  if  I  should  inform  you 
of  the  good  character  he  has  established  while  living 
in  this  country.  I  do  this  unsolicited  by  him  and  with 
great  pleasure,  in  view  of  his  worth,  the  attachment 
to  him  I  have  formed,  and  the  esteem  in  which  he  is 
held  by  all  my  friends  who  know  him.  I  do  it  with 
greater  cheerfulness,  also,  because  I   feel  assured  that 


434     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

I  am  addressing  a  person  of  good  sense  and  of  prin- 
ciple ;  for  none  other  could  have  instilled  into  the 
mind  of  youth  the  substantial  elements  of  character 
which  Martin  possesses.  .  .  .  You  may  be  assured 
that  when  you  welcome  him  after  this  long  absence 
you  take  to  your  embrace  a  son  worthy  of  your  love 
and  of  whom  you  may  be  proud,  possessing  as  he  does 
the  attributes  of  true  respectability  and  manhood. 

As  a  response  to  the  claims  of  human  fellow-         | 
ship,  the   mere   generosity  of  money-giving  is 
Careful  lib-   ^°  easy,  compared  with  Mr.  Letch- 
erality  in       worth's    giving    of   himself,    in    his 
giving  abiding  altruism  of  action,  interest, 

thought,  sympathy,  that  it  seems  hardly  worth 
while  to  speak  of  his  liberalities  from  the  purse. 
What  has  been  shown  of  him  otherwise  could 
leave  no  doubt  of  his  disposition  on  that  side. 
There  was  no  prodigality  in  his  use  of  money, 
gift-wise  or  otherwise.  He  had  acquired  early 
a  practical  appreciation  of  its  important  function 
in  life,  and  it  ruled  his  personal  economy.  As 
a  philanthropist  he  did  not  cease  to  be  a  busi- 
ness man,  and  the  coalescence  of  the  two  char- 
acters had  much  to  do  with  his  success  in  the 
former.  He  spent  money  on  benevolent  objects 
as  carefully,  as  judiciously,  and  as  freely  as  on 
commercial  objects,  but  no  differently,  as  to  the 
exercise  of  discriminating  care. 


THE  MAN  435 

His  position  and  reputation  drew  upon  him 
many  solicitations,  for  help  to  public  undertak- 
ings of  charity  and  social  reform  and  for  relief 
to  private  distress.  He  contributed  constantly 
to  the  support  of  great  numbers  of  the  former, 
and  his  annual  subscriptions  and  dues  of  mem- 
bership to  institutions  and  societies,  at  home 
and  abroad  (for  he  was  a  patron  or  member  of 
some  in  Great  Britain  and  France),  must  have 
drawn  heavily  from  his  income  each  year.  As 
for  private  appeals,  he  was  no  more  likely  to  be 
victimized  by  the  leeches  who  prey  on  careless 
benevolence  than  the  most  penurious  of  men 
would  be.  A  need,  self-proclaimed  and  self- 
pleaded  for,  would  be  suspicious  to  him,  and 
he  would  give  it  rigid  scrutiny;  but  his  eyes 
and  ears  were  always  open  and  alert  to  make 
discovery  of  needs  that  were  silently  endured. 
From  the  grateful  acknowledgments  to  be  found 
among  the  letters  he  received  (of  Delicacy  in 
which  he  seems  never  to  have  de-  giving 
stroyed  any)  it  is  evident  that  such  discoveries 
were  frequent,  and  that  he  could  act  on  them 
with  so  much  delicacy  and  kindliness  that  no 
feeling  of  intrusion  or  wounded  pride  would  be 
occasioned  by  what  he  did. 

The    larger    of   Mr.    Letchworth's    givings, 


436     WILLIAAl  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

however,  were  made  to  the  public  directly,  not 
only  in  the  final  gift  of  his  whole  superb  landed 
Magnitude  estate,  but  in  the  expense  as  well  as 
of  gifts  to  the  labor  of  his  twenty-three  years 
the  public  Qf  ofl^cial  service  to  the  state.  Dur- 
ing the  time  of  his  service  as  State  Commis- 
sioner of  Charities  no  pay  was  attached  to  the 
office;  but  he  was  entitled  by  law  to  a  reim- 
bursement of  all  travelling  and  other  expenses 
incurred  in  the  performance  of  its  duties.  He 
drew  nothing  from  the  state  treasurer,  however, 
under  that  provision  of  the  law,  though  practi- 
cally devoting  his  whole  time  to  an  activity  of 
inspection,  investigation,  study  of  institutions 
and  their  methods,  in  his  own  state  and  out  of 
it,  which  called  for  more  constant  and  extensive 
travel  than  falls  to  the  lot  of  most  business 
men.  To  the  expenses  of  travel,  moreover,  he 
added  an  almost  constant  employment  of  cleri- 
cal assistance  in  his  official  work,  and  the  ac- 
companiment of  a  stenographer  in  most  of  his 
journeys  of  inquiry  outside  of  the  state.  It  has 
been  said  by  some  who  had  means  of  knowing, 
that  the  cost  to  him  of  his  public  service  was 
some  thousands  of  dollars  per  year. 

In  1896,  the  year  of  his  resignation  from  the 
State  Board  of  Charities,  an  amendment  of  the 


THE  MAN  437 

law  relating  to  it  provided  that  each  commis- 
sioner should  not  only  receive  the  reimburse- 
ment of  his  expenses,  but  should  be  paid  a 
compensation  of  ten  dollars  "  for  each  day's  at- 
tendance at  meetings  of  the  Board,  or  of  any 
of  its  committees,  not  exceeding  in  any  one 
year  five  hundred  dollars."  Mr.  Letchworth 
protested  against  this,  and  his  reasons  gjg  reasons 
for  doing  so  are  set  forth  in  a  state-  for  assum- 
ment  to  which  he  never  gave  publi-  »°g  this  cost 
cation.  It  explains  at  the  same  time  the  motive 
which  actuated  him  in  declining  even  a  reim- 
bursement of  the  expenses  of  his  public  ser- 
vice. In  this  statement,  after  citing  the  fact 
that  the  enactment  of  1867  which  created  the 
Board  provided  no  compensation  for  their  time 
or  services,  he  remarks:  — 

It  is  therefore  evident  that  it  was  the  original  in- 
tention of  the  legislature  to  place  the  Board  on  a 
purely  disinterested  and  philanthropic  basis,  and  above 
all  political  and  partisan  influence. 

Then,  quoting   the  terms   of  the   amendment 
of  1896,  he  says:  — 

Against  this  amendment  I  protested,  believing  that 
it  set  aside  the  benevolent  principle  in  the  original 
act,  depriving  the  Board  of  its  unselfish  character,  and 
endangering  its  usefulness.    As  far  back  as  1873  the 


438     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

appropriation  made  by  the  state  for  the  office  ex- 
penses, clerk  hire,  etc.,  exclusive  of  the  salary  of  the 
secretary,  was  only  about  ;^3000,  Some  thought  that 
even  this  small  sum  was  greater  than  it  should  be,  and 
that  the  Board  was  an  unnecessary  appendage  to  the 
state  government.  It  was  partly  to  meet  this  criticism, 
and  to  popularize  the  Board,  that  1  exercised  the  self- 
denial  I  did.  ...  I  believed  that  more  efficient  and 
capable  persons  could  be  found  to  fill  an  uncompen- 
sated Board  than  a  paid  one,  and  that  in  this  way  the 
temptation  to  make  the  office  serve  political  ends 
would  not  exist.  It  has  seemed  to  me,  moreover,  that, 
as  the  work  of  the  Board  was  mainly  in  the  supervi- 
sion of  charities,  in  which  large  numbers  of  individ- 
uals were  engaged  who  sacrificed,  in  many  instances, 
not  only  all  their  time  but  much  of  their  means  in 
conducting  the  work,  there  should  be  found  people  to 
act  as  state  supervisors  of  such  work  who  would  set 
a  worthy  example,  by  receiving  no  compensation  for 
their  time,  and  that  such  self-denial  would  encourage 
and  stimulate  all  benevolent  work. 

All   that   has   been    noted   thus   far,  in   this 
summary  of  the  character  which  expressed  it- 
self in  the  life  and  work  of  William 
Gentle  ap-  . 

pearance        r  ryor  Letchworth,  IS  consonant  with 

and  de-         what  would  be  the  most  natural  ex- 

meanor  ^     •  r  i  ^   v,'  ^ 

pectation    or   one  who    met  him  at 

any  period  of  his  matured  life.    It  goes  natur- 


THE  MAN  439 

ally  with  the  modest  and  gentle  air,  the  quiet 
speech  and  manner,  —  the  whole  aspect  of  coun- 
tenance and  bearing,  which  betokened  tranquil- 
lity of  spirit,  mild  evenness  of  temper,  geniality 
and  kindliness  of  heart.  No  one  can  ever  have 
heard  his  voice  raised  in  anger,  or  seen  the  flush 
of  passion  in  his  eyes,  or  the  hard  lines  of  stern- 
ness in  his  face.  In  appearance  and  demeanor  he 
realized  always  the  ideal  of  a  true  representative 
of  the  Society  of  Friends,  moulded  outwardly 
by  the  inward  moulding  of  Christian  teaching 
as  construed  by  George  Fox.  And  this  could 
raise  no  expectation  of  the  resolution,  the  will, 
the  energy  which  went  with  his  benevolent 
quietude  of  spirit  into  all  that  he  undertook  to 
do. 

Nothing  that  he  undertook  had  been  taken 
hastily  in  hand.  He  set  his  foot  in  no  path  un- 
til he  knew  fully  the  ground  to  be  traversed  in 
it,  as  well  as  the  end  to  which  it  led,  and  saw 
clearly  the  right  and  the  need  or  the  good  rea- 
son for  going  forward  therein.  Pending  these 
determinations  of  his  mind  he  showed  often 
much  hesitancy  and  seeming  indecisiveness  of 
will;  but  when  the  light  he  sought  had  been 
obtained,  and  the  practicable  way  to  a  desirable 
and  right  object  of  endeavor  could  be  seen  dis- 


440     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

tinctly,  he  became,  in  his  quiet  way,  one  of  the 

most    inflexibly  determined  of  men,  —  undis- 

couraged  by  obstacles,  undaunted  by 
Inflexible  .  .       ^  .  .       ■ 

determina-     opposition.     Some  instances  of  the 

tion  under-  positively  militant  fbrce  he  could 
bring  into  action,  out  of  the  quietude 
which  masked  it,  when  hostilities  were  encoun- 
tered in  his  work,  have  been  noticed  heretofore. 
These  surprises  (if  we  may  call  them  so)  of 
force  in  Mr.  Letchworth  were  described  happily 
by  Dr.  Stephen  Smith,  his  colleague  of  many 
years  in  the  New  York  State  Board  of  Chari- 
ties and  his  warm  friend,  in  an  affectionate  and 
admiring  "appreciation"  prepared  for  the  meet- 
ing of  the  New  York  State  Conference  of  Chari- 
ties and  Correction,  at  Watertown,  in  Octo- 
ber, 191 1. 

The  personality  of  Mr.  Letchworth  [said  Dr. 
Smith]  was  a  self-revelation.  He  was  of  medium 
height  and  size,  very  unassuming  in  all  his  acts,  dif- 
fident and  hesitating  in  his  speech,  very  deferential, 
especially  to  an  opponent,  face  always  expressive  of 
kindliness  and  benevolence,  even  when  most  excited  ; 
but  these  conspicuous  personal  appearances  of  inde- 
cision did  not  conceal  from  his  business  associates  an 
expression  of  his  features  indicative  of  a  fixed  deter- 
mination to  exercise  his  own  judgment  when  called 


i 


THE  MAN  441 

upon  to  act.  He  had  an  indomitable  will ;  but  in  ex- 
ercising it  he  was  extremely  careful  not  to  do  injustice 
to  one  of  opposing  views,  or  even  to  "  wound  his  feel- 
ings." I  have  known  him,  after  an  exciting  discussion 
in  the  State  Board  of  Charities,  in  which  he  took  a 
prominent  part,  to  hasten  to  the  railroad  station  and 
find  the  member  or  members  whom  he  had  opposed 
and  beg  their  pardon  if  he  had  said  anything  offensive 
to  them. 

This  peculiarity,  so  unusual  in  men  of  strong  con- 
victions and  aggressive  methods  of  enforcing  them, 
might  be  attributed  to  a  want  of  mental  capacity  to 
form  positive  opinions ;  but  such  a  conclusion  would 
be  altogether  unjust.  On  the  contrary,  it  only  empha- 
sizes the  suggestion  as  to  his  inherent  nervous  sensi- 
bility. His  conclusions  were  never  formed  on  any 
subject  without  the  most  painstaking  inquiry,  and  he 
always  maintained  an  open  mind  while  discussion  was 
in  progress  ;  but  when  the  testimony  was  all  in,  his 
judgment  was  as  unerring  as  human  capacity  would 
permit.  His  extreme  sensitiveness  lest  he  should  give 
pain,  or  do  an  injustice  to  another,  dominated  his  pri- 
vate and  public  acts,  and  forms  an  exquisite  setting  of 
a  true  portraiture  of  his  entire  life. 

While  the  more  pronounced  traits  of  character  were 
so  visibly  stamped  upon  Mr.  Letchworth's  personality 
that  an  ordinary  observer  who  met  him  socially  would 
recognize  his  large  intelligence,  refined  manners,  and 
benevolent  disposition,  it  was  only  to  his  more  inti- 


442     WILLIAM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

mate  friends  that  he  revealed  his  keen  sense  of  humor, 
his  acute  observation  of  nature,  his  appreciation  of  the 
due  proportion  and  arrangement  of  living  things,  and, 
withal,  a  poetic  or  imaginative  temperament. 

Another  of  the  long-time  associates  of  Mr. 
Letchworth  in  the  New  York  State  Board  of 
Charities,  the  president  of  the  Board  during 
many  recent  years,  Mr.  William  Rhinelander 
Stewart,  has  described  his  character  similarly,  in 
a  memorial  presented  to  the  National  Confer- 
ence of  Charities  and  Correction,  at  Boston,  in 
June,  191 1.  "  Modesty,  purity,  patience,  thor- 
oughness, and  gentleness,"  he  wrote,  "  were 
among  Mr.  Letchworth's  most  noticeable  char- 
acteristics. He  disliked  and  avoided  strife,  and 
chose  rather  to  yield  than  to  take  precedence ; 
but  his  opinions,  carefully  formed,  were  tena- 
ciously held.  Happily  endowed  with  a  lively 
sense  of  humor,  his  laughter  was  hearty  and 
contagious,  and  to  his  intimate  friends  he  was 
a  genial  companion.  He  carried  to  his  grave 
the  heart  of  a  child.  The  honorable  positions 
he  filled  with  so  much  dignity  came  unsought, 
and  while  valued  as  proofs  of  esteem,  were 
most  prized  for  the  increased  opportunities  of 
useful  service  which  they  afforded.  Throughout 
his  life  he  was  sustained  by  profound  religious 


THE  MAN  443 

convictions,  and  no  one  who  knew  him  well 
could  doubt  that,  had  he  lived  in  mediaeval 
times,  he  would,  if  called  upon,  have  gone  to 
the  stake  unflinchingly  for  his  creed." 

Mr.  Adelbert  Moot,  of  Buffalo,  who  was 
Mr.  Letchworth's  legal  adviser  in  the  later 
years,  and  who,  as  he  says  in  a  note  to  the 
writer  of  this  biography,  "  had  numerous  con- 
sultations with  him  that  revealed  his  thoughts 
and  feelings  as  only  such  consultations  do  re- 
veal the  very  soul  of  a  man  to  his  lawyer," 
received  the  same  impression  of  a  force  un- 
looked  for  in  so  sweetly  tempered  a  man.  "  I 
had  a  chance,"  writes  Mr.  Moot,  "  to  see  how 
free  he  was  from  the  ordinary  small  failings  of 
mankind,  and  how  broadly  courageous  he  was 
in  any  fight  involving  the  best  interests  of  man- 
kind." "  His  portrait  is  that  of  a  typical  phi- 
lanthropist, and  his  character  was  absolutely  in 
keeping  with  his  portrait." 

Only  those  who  came  into  both  working  and 
social    intimacy   with    Mr.    Letchworth    could 
learn  how  distinctly  his  nature  united  ^^^  ^^^ 
two    temperaments  which   are    very  tempera- 
seldom  balanced    so  evenly   in    the   ™^°*s 
same  individual.   To  know  him  in  the  relations 
that  exhibited  but  one  of  these  was  to  think  of 


444     WlLLIAiM  PRYOR  LETCHWORTH 

him,  most  probably,  as  a  sentimentalist,  —  a 
man  of  too  much  emotionality  for  successful 
dealing  with  the  hardness  and  aggressiveness  of 
the  ruder  conditions  of  life.  This,  it  could 
easily  be  thought,  would  not  only  explain  his 
philanthropy,  but  throw  doubt  on  the  judg- 
ment and  efficiency  with  which  its  promptings 
would  be  directed.  And  he  did  have  an  emo- 
tional susceptibility  and  a  delicacy  of  mind 
which  in  most  makings  of  character  would  war- 
rant that  conclusion.  His  enjoyments  were  of 
the  sweeter  and  gentler  sort.  The  lovelier  sides 
of  nature,  the  finer  things  of  art,  the  generous 
exhibitions  of  humanity,  appealed  to  him  most. 
He  was  exceptionally  fond  of  poetry,  and  with 
a  catholic  taste ;  delighted  in  reading  it  and  hav- 
ing it  read  to  him,  and  carried  in  memory  a 
large  store  of  it,  which  he  had  begun  to  accum- 
ulate in  his  youth. 

To  know  him  in  this  character,  and  to  have 
acquaintance,  at  the  same  time,  with  the  stren- 
uous business  man  that  he  was  for  thirty  years 
and  the  strong  state  official  that  he  was  for 
twenty-three  more,  —  vigilant,  decisive,  reso- 
lute, practically  sagacious,  successful  beyond  the 
common,  in  both  exhibitions,  —  was  to  have  a 
revelation  of  character  that  is  exceedingly  rare 


THE  MAN  445 

in  its  combination  of  qualities,  and  exceedingly 
fine.  This  book  is  an  attempt  to  carry  the  in- 
teresting revelation,  in  some  imperfect  measure, 
beyond  the  circle  which  was  privileged  to  receive 
it  from  the  nobly  charming  man  himself. 


THE    END 


APPENDIX 

CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  THE  WRITINGS  AND   PUBLI- 
CATIONS OF  WILLIAM   PRYOR  LETCHWORTH,  LL.D. 

1874.  (i)  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Samuel  F.  Pratt; 

with  some  Account  of  the  Early  History 
of  the  Pratt  Family.  A  Paper  read  be- 
fore the  Buffalo  Historical  Society,  March 
10,  1873.  By  William  P.  Letchworth. 
Buffalo:  Press  of  Warren,  Johnson  &  Co. 
1874.   211  pp. 

1875.  (2)  Report   relating  to  Pauper  and  Destitute 

Children. 

(In  Report  of  New  York  State  Board 
of  Charities,  1875.) 

1875.  (3)  Supplementary  Report,  relating  to  Pauper 

Children  in  New  York  County  [Randall's 

Island]. 

(In  Report  of  State  Board  of  Charities 
for  1875;  also  in  pamphlet.) 

1876.  (4)  Pauper  Children  in  Michigan.   (An  appeal 

on  behalf  of  pauper  children  in  the  poor- 
houses  of  Michigan,  in  a  letter  addressed 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Michigan  State 
Board  of  Charities,  Charles  M.  Croswell.) 

(In  manuscript.) 
1875.      (5)  Argument  relating  to  Pauper  Labor,  made 
before  the  State  Convention  of  Superin- 
tendents of  the  Poor,  1875. 

(In  pamphlet.) 


448  APPENDIX 

1877.     (^)  Report   on    Dependent    and    Delinquent 
Children. 

(In  Proceedings  of  National  Conference 
of  Charities  and  Correction,  1877; 
also  in  pamphlet.) 

1877.  (7)  Report  of  an  Examination  of  Institutions 

for  the  Education  of  the  Blind  in  Massa- 
chusetts, Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Indiana, 
Appended  to  a  Committee  Report  on  the 
Management  of  Affairs  of  the  New  York 
State  Institution  for  the  Blind  at  Batavia. 
(In  Report  of  N.  Y.  State  Board   of 
Charities  for  1877;  ^^^°  '"  pamphlet.) 
Also  later  committee  reports  on  the  same 
institution. 
1877-78.  (8)   Reports  on  the  Charities  of  the  Eighth 
Judicial  District  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
(In  Reports  of  the  N.  Y.  State  Board 
of  Charities  for  the  years  stated;  also 
in  pamphlet.) 

1878.  (9)  Report  on  Disasters  by  Fire  in  the  Steu- 

ben County  [New  York]  Poorhouse. 
(In  report  of  State  Board  of  Charities 
for  1878;  also  in  pamphlet.) 
1878.  (10)  An  Account  of  the  Cottage  Plan  of  Caring 
for  the    Harmless    Insane,   about    to    be 
tried  in  Cattaraugus  County. 

(Given  in  the  course  of  a  Debate  on 
Insanity   at    the    National   Conference 
of  Charities  and  Correction,  1878,  and 
published  in  its  Report.) 
1878.  (11)  Plans  for  Poorhouses. 

(In  Report  of  New  York  State  Board 
of  Charities  for  1878;  also  in  pamphlet.) 


APPENDIX  449 

1879.  (12)  Report  on  the  Management  and  Affairs 
of  the  Insane  Asylum  of  the  Onondaga 
County  Poorhouse,  by  Joint  Committees 
of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  and  of  the 
Board  of  Supervisors  (Commissioner 
Letchworth,  Chairman). 

(In 'Report   of  the  State  Board,  1879; 
also  in  pamphlet.) 

1879.  (13)  Address    in   response   to    Major-General 

Henry  W.  Slocum,  President  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees  of  the  Soldiers'  and  Sailors' 
Home  at  Bath,  New  York,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  Dedication  of  the  Home, 
January  23,  1879. 
(In  pamphlet.) 

1880.  (14)  Report    to    New   York   State    Board    of 

Charities  of  the  Committee  (Commissioner 
Letchworth,  Chairman)  appointed  to  In- 
vestigate Charges  against  the  Society  for 
the  Reformation  of  Juvenile  Delinquents, 
Randall's  Island,  New  York. 

(In  Report  of  State    Board  for  1880 ; 

also  in  pamphlet.) 

1880.  (15)  The  Pauper   Children  of  Ohio.   (An  ap- 

peal to  county  poor  officials.) 
(In  manuscript.) 

1 88 1.  (16)    Report  by    Commissioners    Letchworth 

and  Carpenter  on  the  Chronic  Insane 
in  certain  Counties  [of  New  York]  ex- 
empted by  the  State  Board  of  Charities 
from  the  operation  of  the  Willard  Asylum 
Act. 

(In   report    of   the  State  Board,  1881; 

also  in  pamphlet.) 


450  APPENDIX 

1882.  (17)  Labor  of  Children  in  Reform  Schools. 
Argument  before  Senate  Committee  on 
Miscellaneous  Corporations,  March  22, 
1882,  on  the  Bill  introduced  by  Senator 
Titus,  entitled  An  Act  relating  to  the 
employment  of  Children  by  Contract  in 
Houses  of  Refuge,  Reformatories,  Cor- 
rectional, and  other  Institutions. 
(In  pamphlet.) 

1882.  (18)  Classification  of  Children  needing  Care, 
Training,  or  Reformation.  Argument  be- 
fore the  Committee  on  State  Charitable 
Institutions,  made  April  12,  1882,  against 
Assembly  Bill  No.  390,  in  relation  to  the 
Western  House  of  Refuge. 
(In  pamphlet.) 

1882,  '94,  '95,  '96.  (19)  Reportson  Thomas  Asylum 

for  Orphan  and  Destitute  Indian  Children. 
(In  Reports  of  New  York  State  Board 
of  Charities ;  for  the  years  stated  ;  also 
in  pamphlet.) 

1883.  (20)  A  Paper  on  Classification  and  Training 

of   Children,  Innocent   and   Incorrigible. 
(In  Proceedings  of  the  National  Con- 
ference  of  Charities    and    Correction, 
1883  ;  also  in  pamphlet.) 
1883.   (21)  A  Paper  on   Dependent  and  Delinquent 
Children  of  the  State  of  New  York.    Pre- 
pared upon   the  invitation  of  the  Societe 
Generale  de    Protection  pour    I'Enfance 
Abandonnee  ou  Coupable,  for  the  Con- 
gres  International  de  la  Protection  de  I'En- 
fance, held  at  Paris,  June,  1883. 
(In  pamphlet.) 


APPENDIX  451 

1883.  (22)  Report  on  the  Orphan  Asylums  and 
Homes  for  Destitute  Children  in  the 
Sixth  Judicial  District  of  New  York. 

(In   Report   of   the    New    York    State 

Board    of  Charities  for  1883;   also  in 

pamphlet.) 
1883.  (23)  Expression  of  Views  on  the  Industrial 
Training  of  Children  in  Houses  of  Refuge 
and  other  Reformatory  Schools  ;  addressed 
to  the  Hon.  Robert  C.  Titus,  State  Sena- 
tor. 

(In  pamphlet.) 

1883.  (24)  Letter  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Judiciary 

Committee  of  the  Assembly,  on  Public 
Official  Care  of  Orphan  and  Destitute 
Children  versus  Private  Benevolence. 
[The  same  printed  under  the  title  of 
.  "  Reasons  against  the  passage  of  the  Bill 
entitled  An  Act  to  Incorporate  the  Home 
for  Destitute  Children  of  Suffolk  County."] 
(In  pamphlet.) 

1884.  (25)  Address  as  President  at  the  opening  of 

the  National  Conference  of  Charities  and 
Correction,  at  St.  Louis,  October  13,  1884. 
(In    Proceedings    of   the    Conference; 
also  in  pamphlet,  under  the  title  of  "  Re- 
lief and  Reform.") 
1884.   (26)  Technologic  Training  in  Reform  Schools. 
An  Address   before   the  Board  of  Man- 
agers  of  the  Western  House  of  Refuge, 
at  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
(In  pamphlet.) 
1884.  (27)  On  Legislation  forbidding  Employment  of 
Children  under  the  Contract  System;  be- 


452  APPENDIX 

ing  an  Answer  to  Objections  urged  by  the 

Managers   of  the  New  York  House  of 

Refuge. 

(In  pamphlet.) 
1885.   (28)  Report  of  Committee  on  Preventive  Work 

among  Children. 

(In  Proceedings  of  the  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Correction, 
1885.) 

1885.  (29)  Address  on  Poorhouse  Administration,  at 

the  New  York  State  Convention  of  Su- 
perintendents of  the  Poor. 

(In  Report  of  the  New  York  State 
Board  of  Charities  for  1885;  also  in 
pamphlet.) 

1886.  (30)  Address  on  Children  of  the  State. 

(In  Proceedings  of  the  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Correction, 
1886;  also  in  pamphlet.) 

1886.  (31)  Report   of  Commissioners    [William    P. 

Letchworth,  Chairman]  appointed  to  Lo- 
cate an  Asylum  for  the  Insane  in  North- 
ern New  York.        * 

(As  Assembly  Document  ii,  Session 
of  1886  ;  also  separately,  in  pamphlet.) 

1887.  (32)  A  Tribute  to  the  Memory  of  Miss  Doro- 

thea Dix. 

(In  Proceedings  of  the  National  Con- 
ference   of  Charities    and    Correction, 
1887.) 
1887.   (33)  Reasons  for  establishing  a  Separate  Girls' 
Reformatory,  instead  of  Rebuilding  on  the 
old  site  the  Edifice  recently  Destroyed  by 
Fire,  at  the  State  Industrial  School,  for- 


APPENDIX  453 

merly    the    Western    House    of    Refuge, 
Rochester,  N.  Y.  ;  embodied   in  a  Letter 
addressed  to  the  Hon.  James  W.  Husted, 
Speaker  of  the  Assembly. 
(In  pamphlet.) 

1887.  (34)  Communication  of  Commissioner  Letch- 

worth  and  Secretary  Hoyt,  of  the  New 
York  State  Board  of  Charities,  to  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Poor- 
house  and  Insane  of  the  Erie  County 
Board  of  Supervisors,  regarding  the  pur- 
chase of  additional  lands  in  the  country 
for  the  Insane  of  the  County. 

(In    Report    of    the    State    Board    for 

1887.) 

1888.  (35)  Memorial  Resolutions  and  Personal  Trib- 

ute to  the  late  T.  Barwick  Lloyd  Baker, 
Esq.,  of  Hardwick  Court,  Gloucester, 
England. 

(In  Proceedings  of  the  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Correction, 
1888.) 

1889.  (36)  The  Insane  in  Foreign  Countries.    Illus- 

trated.    New  York  and  London  ;   G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons,  1889,  374  pp. 
(Large  page  octavo  volume.) 

1889.  (37)  Miss   Mary  Carpenter.     (A    biographical 

tribute.) 

(In  manuscript.) 

1890.  (38)  A  Paper  on  Poorhouse  Construction,  read 

at  the  New  York  State  Convention  of  Su- 
perintendents of  the  Poor. 

(In  Report  of  the  State  Board  of  Char- 
ities for  1890;  also  in  pamphlet.) 


45+  APPENDIX 

1890.  (39)  Reports  on  the  Mikanari  Home,  of  James- 

town. 

(In  Report  of  the  New  York  State 
Board  of  Charities,  1891 ;  also  in  pam- 
phlet.) 

1 89 1.  (40)  Report  on  the  Poorhouses  of  the  Eighth 

Judicial  District  of  New  York. 

(In  Report  of  the  New  York  State  Board 
of  Charities  for  1891  ;  also  separately, 
in  pamphlet.) 

1892.  (41)  A  Paper  on  the  Origin,  Powers  and  Duties 

of  State  Boards  of  Charities. 

(In  Proceedings  of  National  Conference 
of  Charities  and  Correction  for  1892; 
also    in    Report   of   New   York    State 
Board;  also  in  pamphlet.) 
1892.   (42)  Memorial    embodying   Reasons  why   the 

Asylum  for  Insane  Criminals  at  Auburn 

should  not  be  made  a  receptacle  for  the 

Non-Criminal  Insane. 
(In  pamphlet.) 

1892.  (43)  Report  on  the  New  York  State  Institution 

for  the  Blind  [at  Batavia] . 

(In  Report  of  the  New  York  State 
Board  of  Charities  for  1892.) 

1893.  (44)  History  of  Child-saving  Work  in  the  State 

of  New  York,  embodied  in  the  Report  of 
the  Committee  of  the  National  Confer- 
ence of  Charities  and  Correction  on  the 
History  of  Child-saving  Work,  1893. 

(In  Proceedings  of  the  Conference ;  also 

in  pamphlet.) 
1893.  (45)  Report  on  Institutions  Conducting  Char- 
itable and   Reform  Work  in  the  Eighth 


APPENDIX  455 

Judicial  District  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  Also,  Report  on  the  Poorhouses  in 
the  Eighth  Judicial  District. 

(In    Report    of   the    New  York    State 
Board  of  Charities,  1893  >  ^^^"  '"  pam- 
phlet.) 
1894.  (46)  A  Paper  on  Provision  for  Epileptics. 

(In  Proceedings  of  National  Conference 
of  Charities  and  Correction,  1894  ;  also 
in  Report  of  New  York  State  Board  of 
Charities,  1894,  and  in  pamphlet.) 
1894.  (47)  A  Paper  on  the  Removal  of  Children  from 
Almshouses  in  the  State  of  New  York. 
(In  Proceedings  of  National  Conference 
of  Charities  and  Correction,  1894.) 
1894.   (48)  Report    of    Committee    (Commissioners 
Letchworth  and  Smith)  on  the  Construc- 
tion of  Buildings  for  Charitable  and  Cor- 
rectional  Institutions,  on    the  Plans    and 
Estimates  for  Improvements  at  the  Craig 
Colony  for  Epileptics. 

(In   Report   of   the   New   York    State 
Board  of  Charities,  1894  ;  also  in  pam- 
phlet.) 
1894.   (49)  Report     of    Committee    (Commissioners 
Letchworth  and  Smith)  on  the  Construc- 
tion of  Charitable  and  Correctional  Insti- 
tutions, on  the  Plans  of  the  Eastern  New 
York  Reformatory. 

(In  the  Report  of  the  New  York  State 
Board  of  Charities  for   1894;  also  in 
pamphlet.) 
1894.  (50)  Report  on  Thomas  Asylum   for  Orphan 
and  Destitute  Indian  Children. 


456  APPENDIX 

(In  Report  of  the  New  York  State 
Board  of  Charities  for  1894;  also  in 
pamphlet.) 

1894.  (51)  Remarks    in   opening  Discussion  on  the 

Care  of  the  Insane. 

(In  Proceedings  of  the  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Correction, 
1894.) 

1895.  (52)  Report  on  the  Thomas  Asylum  for  Orphan 

and  Destitute  Indian  Children. 
(In  pamphlet.) 

1896.  (53)  A  Paper  on  the  Care  of  Epileptics. 

(In  Proceedings  of  the  National  Con- 
ference of  Charities  and  Correction, 
1896.) 

1896.   (54)  Report   on   the   Erie   County  System  of 
Placing  Dependent  Children  in  Families. 
(In  Report  of  New  York  State  Board 
of  Chanties   for   1896;   also   in    pam- 
phlet.) 

1896.   (55)  Report  on  the  Poorhouses  of  the  Eighth 
Judicial  District  of  New  York. 

(In  Report  of  the  New  York  State 
Board  of  Charities  for  1896;  also  sep- 
arately in  pamphlet.) 

1896.  (56)  Report  on  Observance  of  the  Rules  of  the 

State   Board  of  Charities   in    the   Eighth 
Judicial  District. 

(In  Report  of  the  State  Board  for  1896.) 

1897.  (57)  -^    Paper    on    Dependent    Children    and 

Family  Homes. 

(In  Proceedings  of  National  Conference 
of  Charities  and  Correction,  1897;  also 
in  pamphlet.) 


APPENDIX  457 

1897.   (58)  Historical  Address  at  the  New  York  State 
Convention  of  Superintendents  of  the  Poor. 
(In  pamphlet.) 

1899.  (59)   Care  and  Treatment  of  Epileptics.    Illus- 

trated.     New  York  and  London :   G.  P. 
Putnam's  Sons,  246  pp. 

(Large  page  octavo  volume.) 

1900.  (60)  Address,  as  President,  at  the  opening  or 

the  First   New  York  State    Conference 
of  Charities  and  Correction,  1900. 

(In    Proceedings   of  the    Conference ; 

also  in  pamphlet.) 

1901.  (61)  Transactions  of  the  National  Association 

for  the  Study  of  Epilepsy  and  the  Care 
and  Treatment  of  Epileptics,  at  the  First 
Annual  Meeting,  held  in  Washington, 
D.  C,  May  14-15,  1901.  Edited  by 
William  Pryor  Letchworth,  LL.D.  Buf- 
falo: C.  E.  Brinkworth,  1901,  221  pp. 
(Cost  of  publication  paid  by  Mr.  L.) 

1903.  (62)  Homes  for  Homeless  Children:  a  Re- 
port on  Orphan  Asylums  and  other  In- 
stitutions for  the  Care  of  Children.  [To 
which  is  appended  a  Report  on  Pauper 
and  Destitute  Children,  and  a  Report  on 
Pauper  Children  in  New  York  County, 
the  three  brought  together  in  one  vol- 
ume, and  all  appearing  likewise  as  sepa- 
rate publications  in  the  list  above.] 

1905.  (63)  Notes  and  Correspondence  relating  to 
the  Founding  of  the  First  State  Colony 
for  Epileptics  [Craig  Colony]  in  the 
State  of  New  York.  Compiled  by  Will- 
iam Pryor  Letchworth. 

(In  manuscript,  70  pp.,  unpublished.) 


458  APPENDIX 

19 10.  (64)  Care  of  the  Insane  in  New  York  State. 
Compiled  from  Notes  made  by  William 
Pryor  Letchworth. 

(In   manuscript,   94   pp.,  unpublished. 
Brought     down,    under     Mr.    Letch- 
worth's  direction,  to  1910.) 
19 10.   (65)  A  Narrative  of  the  Life  of  Mary  Jemi- 
son,  De-he-wa-mis,  the   White  Woman 
of  the    Genesee.     By  James  E.  Seaver. 
Seventh  Edition,  with  Geographical  and 
Explanatory    Notes.     This    edition    also 
includes  numerous   illustrations,   further 
particulars  of  the  history  of  De-he-wa- 
mis,   and  other    interesting   matter   col- 
lected    and     arranged     by    Wm.    Pryor 
Letchworth.     New  York  and  London  : 
G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  305  pp. 

(Mr.  Letchworth  had  edited  and  pub- 
lished two  previous  editions  of  this 
book,  in  1877  and  1898.) 

COLLECTIONS    OF    PAMPHLETS    IN    BOUND    VOLUMES 

In  1908  Mr.  Letchworth  made  up  four  collections  of  his  pamphlet  pub- 
lications, bound  together  in  that  number  of  volumes,  with  title-pages  and 
tables  of  contents.  Three  of  the  volumes  were  in  one  series,  as  shown  be- 
low. The  contents  are  indicated  in  this  place  by  numbers  which  refer  to 
the  numbered  titles  in  the  list  above  :  — 

Miscellaneous  Papers  relating  to  Charity  and  Cor- 
rection. By  William  Pryor  Letchworth,  LL.D.,  3 
volumes. 

Vol.  I.  Containing  25,  26,  33,  29,  30  and  21,  of 
the  papers  numbered  above,  in  the  order  shown   here. 

Vol.  2.  Containing  6,  14,  18,  17,  23,  27,  20,  22, 
44,  57,  13,  41,  49,  60. 


APPENDIX  459 

Vol.  3.    Containing  11,  38,  9,  12,  16,  31,  34,42, 

46,  48,  58. 

Charities  in  Western  New  York,  Eighth  Judicial 
District.  A  Record  of  Examinations  and  Official  In- 
spections of  Charitable  Institutions  in  the  Counties 
of  Allegany,  Cattaraugus,  Chautauqua,  Erie,  Gene- 
see, Niagara,  Orleans,  and  Wyoming,  in  the  State  of 
New  York. 

Containing  7,  8,  19,  39,  40,  45,  55,  54  o<"  the  pa- 
pers numbered  in  the  above  list, in  the  order  of  the  num- 
bering here. 

MINOR    MANUSCRIPTS 

The  following  writings,  preserved  in  manuscript  at  the  Glen  Iris  home- 
stead, include  some  finished  papers  that  have  not  gone  into  print,  but  are, 
for  the  most  part,  the  first  drafts  of  addresses  and  essays,  or  notes  and  mem- 
oranda on  subjects  discussed  finally  in  the  printed  writings  of  the  list  above. 

The  Saving  of  Homeless  and  Destitute  Children. 

Care  and  Reformation  of  Homeless  and  Depend- 
ent Children. 

Removal  of  Homeless  Children  from  the  Erie 
County  Poorhouse. 

Removal  of  Children  from  Almshouses.  (Several 
papers  and  letters,  some  of  which  are  in  print  else- 
where.) 

Origin  of  the  New  York  State  Board  of  Charities. 

The  State  Board  of  Charities.  (Historical  memo- 
randa.) 

Notes  and  References  relating  to  Reformatory 
Work,  including  Notes  while  visiting  Reformatory 
Institutions  for  the  Young  in  Europe. 

Child-saving  Work  Abroad.  (Memoranda  of  ob- 
servations in  1880.) 

The  Buffalo  Children's*  Aid  Society.  (A  sketch  of 
the  circumstances  in  which  it  originated.) 


460 


APPENDIX 


Women  Managers  on  Boards  of  State  Charitable 
Institutions. 

Rain  Baths.  A  paper  on  the  sanitary  importance 
of  the  shower  or  rain  bath,  as  a  substitute  in  poor- 
houses  and  similar  institutions  for  the  bathtub,  accom- 
panied by  eight  descriptions  of  the  arrangement  and 
construction  of  these  baths  and  of  the  mode  of  using 
them  in  several  institutions. 

Some  Reminiscences  of  Childhood. 

A  Spelling-Match.  [Describing  the  old-time  coun- 
try school  spelling  contests  as  he  knew  them  in  his 
boyhood.] 

Example  Stronger  than  Precept. 

A  Description  of  Mount  Vernon  as  it  appeared 
in  1 86 1.  Read  at  the  Anniversary  of  Washington's 
Birthday,  1862,  at  the  Baptist  Church  in  Castile. 

Notes  relating  to  Colonel  Williams  [who  was  one 
of  his  early  neighbors  at  Glen  Iris,  and  an  interesting 
character] . 

The  Hospice  of  Saint  Bernard. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Allen,  Orlando,  86. 

Almshouses,  children  in,  no, 
i6i,  204-05. 

Almshouses.  See,  also,  Poor- 
houses. 

Alt-Scherbitz  Insane  Asylum, 
176-80,  190,  279,  289,  300, 
301. 

American  Scenic  and  Historic 
Preservation  Society,  50,  55, 

65,  97-98,  381,  389,  392,  394, 
404,  407-09. 

Anderson,  President  Martin  B., 

66,  108,  119,  262. 
Annan,  Annie  R.,  59-60. 
Appenzcller    institutions,    183- 

84. 
Arboretum,    Letchworth   Park, 

400-04. 
Arey,  Mrs.  H.  E.G.,  34-35- 
Auburn,     asylum     for     insane 

criminals,  303-04. 
Auburn,  N.  Y.,  6-8,  15-21. 
Auchmuty,  Mr.,  233,  246. 

Bailey,  Prof.  L.  H.,  98,  382, 
404. 

Baker,  T.  Barwick  Lloyd,  202, 
225. 

Bale,  Institutions  at,  183. 

Barrows,  Samuel  J.,  161. 

Barton,  Clara,  316. 

Batavia,  N.  Y.,  State  Institu- 
tion for  the  Blind  at,  254-55, 

Sis- 


Bath,     Soldiers'     and     Sailors' 

Home  at,  256-58. 
Belgian  benevolent  institutions, 

189-93. 
Bell,  Dr.  Clark,  300. 
Bennett,  Carlenia,  98-99. 
Berlin,  Institutions  in,  180. 
Berne,  Institutions  in,  184. 
Bethel    Colony    for   epileptics, 

337- 

Bicetre,  185. 

Big  Tree  Council  and  Treaty, 
92,  102. 

Bishop,  Miss  Caroline,  69-70, 
99-100,  297,  342,  357,  363, 
405,  409,  417,  419-20. 

Blacksnake,  William  and  Jesse, 
78. 

Blind,  N.  Y.  State  Institution 
forthe,  254-55,  315. 

Boyd,  Lieutenant  Thomas,  352. 

Brandt,  Captain,  67,  77. 

Bridge,  Portage,  49,  61-63. 

Bristol,  Miss  Carpenter's  re- 
formatory schools  at,  199- 
201. 

Brown,  David  E.,  307. 

Bryant,  William  C,  37,  73,  95, 
103. 

Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's  life  in,  25-41,  68. 

Buffalo     Creek      Reservation, 

93- 
Buffalo  Fine  Arts  Academy,  39- 
41. 


464 


INDEX 


BufFalo  Historical  Society,  78, 
102-03. 

Buffalo  State  Hospital  for  In- 
sane, 282,  291-94. 

Burnham,  Frederick  J.,  Burn- 
ham  Industrial  Farm,  239- 
40. 

Bush-Brown,  Henry  K.,  97. 

Byron,  Lady  Noel,  200. 

Campbell,  Mrs.  Helen  Thorn- 
ton, 307. 
Caneadea   Council  House,   d"}, 

73-89,  95-ioo>  418. 

Care  of  the  Insane  in  N.  Y. 
State;  historical  account,  295. 

Carpenter,  Miss  Mary,  139, 
156,  199-201. 

Carpenter,  Miss  Sarah  M., 
Commissioner,  273. 

Central  Islip  Farm  for  the  In- 
sane, 279. 

Children,  homes  for  the  home- 
less, 123-30,  147-49,  205-06. 

Children,  innocent  and  incorri- 
gible, classification  for,  201, 
222-26. 

Children  in  jails  and  peniten- 
tiaries, 212-16. 

Children  in  poorhouses,  1 10-61, 
204-05. 

Children,  Mr.  L.'s  interest  in, 
68-71. 

"Children  of  the  State,"  229-33. 

Children's  Act,  The  (New  York), 
122-24,  150,  ISS- 

Children's  Aid  Society,  Buffalo, 

305-07- 

Child-saving  propositions,  sev- 
enteen, 236-39. 

Child-saving  work  abroad,  164- 
208.  I 


Child-saving  work  in  New  York,- 
history  of,  315. 

Child-saving  work:  prevenient, 
106-63. 

Child-saving  work :  reformative, 
210-50. 

Christiania,  institutions  In,  171. 

Clarke,  Dr.  John  M.,  391. 

Classification  of  children  in  in- 
stitutions, 201,  222-26,  236. 

Clermont-en-Oise,  colonies  of 
the  insane,  185-87. 

Clinton,  Judge  George  W.,  63, 
66. 

Cole,  Thomas,  painting  of  the 
Genesee  Falls,  54. 

Conference  of  Charities  and 
Correction.  See  National 
Conference,  and  State  Con- 
ference. 

Congres  International  de  la 
Protection  de  I'Enfance, 
Paris,  236,  308. 

Conolly,  Dr.,  196. 

Contract  labor  in  reformatories, 

241-45- 
Copenhagen,     institutions     in, 

172-73. 
Cornplanter  (John  O.  Bail),  78, 

83- 
Cornplanter  Medal,  The,  104. 
Cottage  system  for  residential 

institutions,       173,      178-79, 

193-95,  205. 
Council  House,',the  Old  Indian, 

67,73-89,95-100,418. 
Craig,  Oscar,  314,  317,  319,  333. 
Craig   Colony,    317,    319,    321, 

333-39,  359- 
Crozer,  Mrs.  Mary  A.,  9,  23-24,- 

253,318-19. 


INDEX 


46s 


De-ge-wa-nus,  51,  409. 
Denmark,  Mr.  L.'s  inspections 

in,  172-73. 
Dix,   Miss   Dorothea   L.,   263, 

267,  292. 
Dow,  Hon.  Charles  M.,  98,  382, 

399,  400, 404- _ 
Dublin,  institutions  at,  165. 
Dymphna,  St.,  190. 

Edinburgh,  institutions  at,  168- 
69. 

Eighth  Judicial  District,  N.  Y., 
107,  254,  256,  315. 

Engelken,  Dr.  H.,  301. 

England,  benevolent  institu- 
tions of,  195-208. 

England:  Local-government 
Board,  gift  from,  208-09. 

Epileptics,  care  and  treatment 
of,  319,  321,  327-50.  354,  410- 
16. 

Eric  County  insane  asylum,  265- 
67,285-91,303. 

Erie  County  "placing  out"  sys- 
tem, for  children,  126-28, 
321. 

Erie  County  poorhouse,  chil- 
dren in,  1 12-16. 

Fairchild,  Prof.  H.  L.,  392. 
Falls  of  the  Genesee,  34,  42,  48- 

50,  52-53- 

Fillmore,  Millard,  67,  79,  86. 

First  N.  Y.  Dragoons,  rendez- 
vous camp,  105. 

Fish,  E.  E.,  64-65. 

Fitz-James  Colony  of  Insane, 
186. 

"Friends  Retreat,"  The,  197- 
98. 

Friends,  Society  of,  2,  3-4,  5,  30. 


Ganson,  Senator  John,  144. 
Gardeau  or  Gardow  Tract,  54, 

93,  96. 
Genesee  Falls,  The,  34,  42,  48- 

50, 52-53,  372-80,  393-98. 
Genesee  River  Company,  376- 

79, 393-98- 
Genesee  Valley:  its  beauty,  34, 

48;  memorials  of  its  history, 

72-104,  351-52,  418. 
Genesee  Valley  Museum,  ICX)- 

02. 
Germany,  Mr.  L.'s  inspections 

in,  173-82. 
Gheel  Colony  of  Insane,  190- 

93- 

Gibbons,  Mrs.  Abby  Hopper, 
280-81. 

Gildersleeve,  Mrs.  C.  H.,  34-35. 

Glasgow,  Institutions  at,  168- 
70. 

Glen  Iris:  First  seen  by  Mr.  L., 
34;  acquisition  and  develop- 
ment, 42-68; topographic  fea- 
tures, 48-50;  described  by 
David  Gray,  51-54;  repre- 
sented in  poetry  —  the 
"Voices  of  the  Glen,"  55-61; 
the  railway,  bridge,  61-63; 
flora  and| fauna,  63-66;  memo- 
rial trees,  66-67;  local  histori- 
cal memorials,72-i05  ;Portage 
Dam  project,  a  menace  to  the 
falls  and  the  glen,  352,  362- 
63,  370-80,  393-98;  Mr.  L.'s 
early  plans  for  the  future  of  the 
glen:  the  Wyoming  Benevo- 
lent Institute,  364-70,  380- 
81,  389;  gift  of  the  estate  to 
the  state,  which  names  it 
Letchworth  Park,  380-404; 
continued  improvements  by 


466 


INDEX 


Mr.  L.,  407;  plans  of  the 
Scenic  and  Historic  Preserv- 
ation Society,  for  the  devel- 
opment of  the  park,  400-04. 

Glenny,  Mrs.  William  H.,  59- 
60. 

Gothenburg,  institutions  in, 
170-71. 

Gowanda  State  Homoeopathic 
Hospital  for  Insane,  290. 

Grabau,  Dr.  A.  W.,  391. 

Gray,  David,  36-37,  51-54,57" 
58,67,87-89,313. 

Greene  (Cordelia  A.)  Memorial 
Library,  389. 

Grout,  Comptroller  Edward  M., 
152-55- 

Hai-wa-ye-is-tah,  89. 

Hall,  Edward  Hagaman,  98, 382, 

392- 
Hall,  Prof.  James  A.,  391. 
Halsey,  Francis  Whiting,  382. 
Hamburg,  the  Rauhe  Haus  at, 

173-75- 
Hance,  Ann.    See  Letchworth, 

Mrs.  Ann  Hance. 

Hanwell  Asylum,  196. 

Hardwicke  Court  Reforma- 
tory, 202. 

Harris,  Dr.  Elisha,  130, 131,145, 
146,  211-16. 

Hayden  and  Holmes,  15-21. 

Hill,  Governor  David  B.,  308- 

09-  _ 

Historical  memorials,  Genesee 
Valley,  72-104,  351-52,  418- 

Ho-de-no-sau-nee,  The,  80, 
86. 

Holland,  benevolent  institu- 
tions of,  193-95. 

Home  Monthly,  The,  35. 


Homes   for  homeless   children, 

123-30,  147-49,  205-06. 
Howland,  Henry  R.,  2,  38,  58- 

59,  67,  73,  78-89,  100-02,  364, 

430. 
Howland,  Mrs.  William,  9,  357. 
Hoxie,  Mrs.  Eliza,  9. 
Hoyt,  Dr.  Charles  S.,  108,  117, 

146,285,339,352-53. 
Hughes,  Gov.  Charles  E.,  383, 

386,  387,  409,  412. 

Immigration,  pauper,  259-62. 

Indian  Council,  the  last,  67, 
76-89. 

Indian  Council  House,  67,  73- 
89,95-100,418. 

Indian  Mission  burial  ground, 
Buffalo,  96. 

Industrial  training  in  reforma- 
tories, 245-50. 

Insane,  the:  Mr.  L.'s  Interest 
in  their  treatment,  162;  his 
study  of  institutions  in  Eu- 
rope, 164-98;  his  work  at 
home,  263-304;  his  book  on 
"  The  Insane  in  Foreign 
Countries,"  164,  167,  172, 
177,  190,  197,  296-302,  312. 

Insane  in  New  York  State,  the, 
263-94. 

International  Prison  Associa- 
tion, 157. 

Ireland,  Dr.  W.  W.,  300. 

Ireland,  Mr.  L.'s  inspections  in, 
164-66. 

Iroquois  history,  72-104. 

Jacket,  John,  67. 
Jails,  county,  212-16,  355-57- 
Jemison,  Mary,  67,  75,  78,  89- 
100,  418. 


I 


INDEX 


467 


Jemlson,  Thomas,  67,  78, 82. 

Jenisheu,  82. 

Johnston,  James  NicoU,  37>  38, 
56-S7>  67,  136-38,  141,  297, 
313,327-28,342,360-61,405, 
409,  410,  419. 

Jones,  Amanda  T.,  60-61. 

Jones,  Capt.  Horatio,  102. 

Kennedy,    Mrs.   Thomas,   98- 

100. 
Kerr,  Col.  Simcoe,  77,  80,  85. 
King  George  canon,  79. 
King's      County      almshouses, 

children  in,  III-12,  140,  150, 

152-55- 
Kingsford,  Hon.  Thos.  F.,  382. 
Kingswood  Reformatory,  200. 
Kirkbride,  Franklin  B.,  413. 
Koeppe,  John  Maurice,  177. 
Kunz,    George    Frederick,    98, 

381,  392,  404. 

Lalor,  Dr.  Joseph,  164-65. 

Larkin,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John  D., 
96. 

"Last  Indian  Council  on  the 
Genesee,"  87-89. 

Leipzlger,  Dr.  Henry  M.,  382. 

Letchworth,  Ann  Hance  (mo- 
ther of  W.  P.  L.),  6,  14,  18, 
28,  46,  252. 

Letchworth,  Charlotte  (Mrs. 
Byron  C.  Smith),  9,  28,29,31. 

Letchworth,  Edward  Hance,  9, 
28,  364. 

Letchworth,  Eliza  (Mrs.  Hoxie), 

9- 

Letchworth,  George  Jediah,  9, 
28,  312,  364. 

Letchworth,  Hannah  (Mrs.  Wil- 
liam Howland),  9,  357. 


Letchworth,  John,  Jr.,  5. 
Letchworth,  John,  Sr.,  4-5. 
Letchworth,  Josiah,  Jr.,  9,  32, 

33,365,418,420,422. 
Letchworth,   Josiah,    Sr.,    5-8, 

12-17,22,27,28,32. 
Letchworth,  Mary  Ann   (Mrs. 

Crozer),  9,  23-24,  253,  318- 

19- 

Letchworth,  Ogden  P.,  380. 

Letchworth,  Robert,  3-4. 

Letchworth,  Thomas,  3-4. 

Letchworth,  William,  5. 

Letchworth,  William  Pryor: 
Characteristics  of  his  life,  i; 
English  Quaker  ancestry,  2- 
5;  parentage,  5-8;  brothers 
and  sisters,  9;  boyhood,  10- 
15;  leaving  home,  15-18; 
clerkship  at  Auburn,  18-21; 
at  New  York,  21-25;  in  busi- 
ness at  Buffalo,  25-27;  the 
Pratt  &  Letchworth  estab- 
lishment, 26-30;  life  in  Buf- 
falo, 28-31;  vacation  in  the 
South,  31-32;  a  year  in  Eu- 
rope, 32;  establishment  of 
malleable  iron  manufacture, 
33;  widening  social  relations, 
33-38;  first  seeing  of  Glen 
Iris,  34;  writing  for  The  Home 
Monthly,  34-35;  entering  The 
Nameless  Club,  36-37;  Presi- 
dent of  The  Buffalo  Fine  Arts 
Academy,  39-41;  acquisition 
and  development  of  Glen  Iris, 
42-68;  hospitality  at  Glen 
Iris,  54-55;  description  of 
burning  of  railway  bridge,  61- 
62;  planting  memorial  trees, 
66-68;  interest  in  schools,  and 
the  young,  68-70;  preserving 


468 


INDEX 


memorials  of  Genesee  Valley 
history,  72-104;  honors  to 
memory  of  Mary  Jemison, 
89-100;  adopted  into  the 
Seneca  Nation  and  named, 
89;  president  of  the  Buffalo 
Historical  Society,  102-03;  re- 
cipient of  Cornplanter  Medal, 
104;  retirement  from  busi- 
ness, 106;  appointed  (1873) 
Commissioner  on  N.  Y.  State 
Board  of  Charities,  107; 
child-savingwork:  prevenient, 
109-61;  removal  of  children 
from  poorhouses,  110-52; 
vice-president  of  the  State 
Board  (1874),  in,  147;  spe- 
cial report  on  children  in 
poorhouses  (1874),  I 19-21; 
securing  mandatory  legisla- 
tion, 1 21-23 ;  on  family  homes 
for  homeless  children,  123- 
29;  Randall's  Island  inves- 
tigation, 136-42;  successes 
against  Tammany  and  Al- 
bany politicians,  140-46;  Mr. 
L.'s  strength  of  will,  142-47; 
investigation  of  orphan  asy- 
lums, etc.,  147-49;  official 
praise  of  work  from  New 
York  City,  152-55;  mission- 
ary work  in  other  states,  156- 
61;  tour  of  investigation  in 
Europe  (1880),  161,  164-209; 
his  book  on  "The  Insane  in 
Foreign  Countries,"  164,  167, 
172,  177,  190,  197,  272,  296- 
302;  on  classification  of  child- 
ren in  institutions,  201,  222- 
36;  child-saving  work:  re- 
formative, 210-50;  connection 
with  Prison  Association,  217- 


18;  plan  for  dealing  with  juve- 
nile delinquency,  229, 234;  his 
effectual  study  of  problems, 
234-35;  his  seventeen  child- 
saving  propositions,  236-39; 
campaign  against  contract 
labor  in  reformatories,  241- 
45;  work  for  improved  indus- 
trial training  in  reformatories, 
245-50;  impressive  incident 
at  Rochester,  249-50;  reap- 
pointment (1877)  on  State 
Board,  253;  president  of  the 
Board,  253;  labors  for  the  in- 
sane, 263-304;  advocacy  of 
women  on  boards  of  mana- 
gers, 279-82;  on  commission 
to  locate  state  hospital  for  in- 
sane in  northern  N.  Y.,  282- 
85;  second  reappointment  on 
State  Board,  308-11;  resigna- 
tion of  the  presidency  of  the 
Board,  314;  establishment  of 
Craig  Colony,  317,  319,  333- 
39;  fourth  consecutive  ap- 
pointment on  the  State  Board, 
317;  received  honorary  de- 
gree of  LL.  D.,  317-18;  resig- 
nation from  State  Board, 
321-26;  work  for  the  Epilep- 
tic, 327-50;  president  of  na- 
tional association  concerning 
epilepsy,  346;  the  menace  of 
the  Portage  Dam  project, 
352,  362-63,  370-80,  393-98; 
president  of  first  State  Con- 
ference of  C.  and  C,  354; 
stricken  with  partial  paraly- 
sis, 357-58;  early  plans  for 
the  future  of  the  glen:  the 
Wyoming  Benevolent  Insti- 
tute, 364-70, 380-81,  389;  gift 


INDEX 


469 


of  Letchworth  Park  to  the 
State,  380-404;  continued 
improvements  by  Mr.  L., 
407;  Letchworth  Village 
named  in  his  honor,  410-16; 
his  last  year,  death  and  buri- 
al, 417-24;  characteristics  of 
the  man,  425-45. 

Chronological  list  of  Mr. 
L.'s  writings  and  publica- 
tions, 447-60. 

Letchworth  parish  and  village, 
Eng.,  2,  3. 

Letchworth  Park,  364-404. 

Letchworth  Village,  N.  Y.,  410- 
16. 

Little,  Dr.  Charles  S.,  415-16. 

Livingston    County    Historical 
Society,  351. 

Lowell,  Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw, 
214-16,  253,  278. 

Lunacy,  State  Commission  in, 
289,  294-96. 

McCloud,  Miss,  357,  362. 
McPherson,  Mrs.  Robert,  115- 

16,  127. 
Marshall,  Orsamus  H.,  73,  103. 
Massachusetts,  Conference 

about     immigrant     paupers 

with,  260-61. 
Massachusetts  juvenile  reform- 
ative system,  219,  226-30. 
Mettray,   Netherland,    193-95, 

242. 
Mettray     reformatory     colony 

(French),  185,  187-89,  242. 
Michigan       State       Industrial 

Home  for  Girls,  248. 
Mohawk  Nation,  the,  77,  79, 85. 
Moot,  Adelbert,  396-97,  443. 
Morgan,  Lewis  H,,  95.    


Mount  Morris,  50,  334,  372-74. 

Nameless  Club,  The,  36-37,  55. 

Nash,  George  V.,  65-66. 

National  Conference  of  Chari- 
ties and  Correction,  125,  156, 
201,  221,  225,  227,  228,  236, 
241,  261,  270,  282,  319,  341, 

350,442- 
National     Prison     Association, 

211,  216. 
Netherlands  Mettray,   193-9S, 

242. 
New    York    City    almshouses, 

children  in,  111-12,  131,  135- 

42,  150,  152-55,  220,  258-59. 
New  York  State  Board  of  Char- 
ities, Mr.  L.'s  service  in,  107- 

63,  210-326,  423. 
New  York  State  Conference  of 

C.  and  C,  354-57,  361,  416, 

440. 
New  York  State  Water  Supply 

Commission,  394-98. 
Norway,   Mr.   L.'s   inspections 

in,  171. 

O'Bail,     John      (Cornplanter), 

78,  83. 
O'Bail,  Solomon,  83-85. 
Ogdensburg  State  Hospital  for 

Insane,  location  of,  282-85. 
Ohio   Hospital   for   Epileptics, 

331- 
Onondaga  County  institutions, 

268-69." 
Ordronaux,  Dr.  John,  331-32. 
Orphan  Asylums,   115,  121-30, 

134,  147-49- 
Osborn,  Mrs.  Kate,  dj,  78. 
Osier,  Prof.  William,  346. 


470 


INDEX 


Paetz,  Dr.  Albrecht,  179,  300- 

01. 
Pandy,  Dr.  Kalman,  300-01. 
Paris,    benevolent    institutions 

of,  185. 
Parker,   Prof.   Arthur   C,   98- 

100. 
Parker,  Sergeant  Michael,  351. 
Parker,  Nicholas  H.,  78,  80-82. 
Pauper  immigration,  259-62. 
Paupers,  employment  for,  132- 

34- 
Peterson,   Dr.   Frederick,    300, 

332-33,  338,  346. 
Phillips,  Hon.  N.  Taylor,  382. 
Poorhouse,    Erie   Co.,    1 12-16, 

265-67. 
Poorhouse    asylum,   Onondaga 

Co.,  258,  268-69. 
Poorhouses,  children  in,  IIO-61, 

204-05. 
Poorhouses,  plans  for,  255. 
Poorhouses.     See,    also.    Alms- 
houses. 
Portage.  —  Portage  Bridge,  34, 

41,  46,  49,  61-63. 
Portage     Dam     water-storage 

project,  372-80,  393-98. 
Pratt,  Pascal  P.,  26. 
Pratt,  Samuel  F.,  26. 
Pratt    &    Letchworth,    26-33, 

106. 
Price,  Overton  W.,  403. 
Prison  Association  of  N.  Y.,  130, 

211-18. 
Prison     Commission,     N.     Y. 

State,  218. 
Prospect  Home,  371. 
Prussian  reformatories  for  boys, 

182. 
Pruyn,  John  V.  L.,   108,   144, 

253. 


Putnam,  Harvey  W.,  326. 
Putnam,  James  O.,  66,  107. 

Quaker  ancestry,  2-5. 

Rafter,  George  W.,  375-76. 
Rain  baths  in  poorhouses,  etc., 

320. 
Randall's    Island    institutions, 

131,    135-42,   150,   154,   220, 

258-59- 
RauheHaus,  Hamburg,  173-75, 

180,  187,  193,  205,  210,  242. 
Rayner,  Dr.,  196. 
Red  Jacket,  67,  78,  103. 
Red  Lodge  Reformatory,  200- 

01. 

Reformative  child-saving  work, 

210-50. 
Reformatories,   juvenile,     147- 

49,  164-208,  241-45,  245-50. 
Reformatory  institutions 

abroad,  Mr.  L.'s  studies  of, 

165-208. 
Runkle,  John  D.,  245. 
Rutter,  Dr.  H.  C,  346. 

Sackett,  Colonel  Henry  W., 
382. 

St.  Hans  Hospital  for  Insane, 
172-73. 

St.  John,  Evangelical  Founda- 
tion of,  180. 

Salpetriere,  La,  185. 

Sanborn,  F.  B.,  66. 

Sargent,  Prof.  Charles  S.,  68. 

"Saxa  Hilda,"  35. 

Schools,  Mr.  L.'s  interest  in,  68- 
70. 

Schuyler,  Miss  Louise  Lee,  131. 

Scotland,  Mr.  L.'s  inspections 
in,  166-70. 


INDEX 


471 


Seaver,  James  E.,  94-95. 
Selkirk,  George  H.,  37. 
Seneca  Nation,  the,  72-104. 
Seventeen  child-saving  proposi- 
tions, 236-39. 
Seward,  William  H.,  7-8,  54. 
Shaker  Settlement  of   Sonyea, 

334-36. 

Sherwood,  N.  Y.,  Mr.  Letch- 
worth's  boyhood  in,  6,  ia-i8. 

Shongo,  George,  93. 

Shongo,  James,  78. 

Shower  baths  in  poorhouses, 
etc.,  320. 

Sibbald,  Dr.  John,  300. 

Skinner,  John  B.,  364. 

Smith,  Mrs.  Byron  C,  9,  28- 

29,  31- 
Smith,  Dr.  Samuel  Wesley,  300. 

Smith,    Dr.    Stephen,    295-96, 

300,  31S,   319,   324-25,   338, 

358,  440. 

Society  for  Reformation  of  Ju- 
venile Delinquents,  258-59. 

Sonyea,  334-36. 

Spratling,  Dr.  William  P.,  337, 

339,  346,  360. 

State  Board  of  Charities.  See 
New  York  State  Board. 

State  care  (N.  Y.)  for  all  in- 
sane, 288-91. 

State  Charities  Aid  Association, 
124,131,253,288,333. 

State  hospitals  (N.  Y.)  for  the 
insane,  282-85. 

State  Industrial  School  (N.  Y.), 
247-50. 

Stewart,  William  Rhinelander, 

278,319,411-12,442. 
Stillson,  Jerome  B.,  37. 
Stockholm,  institutions  in,  171- 

72. 


Superintendents  of  the  Poor, 
state  conventions  of,  118,  222, 

315,350- 
Sweden,  Mr.  L.'s  inspections  in, 

170-71. 
Switzerland,   Mr.    L.'s    inspec- 
tions in,  183-84. 

Thay-en-dan-ega-ga-onh,  85. 
Thomas  Orphan  Asylum,  103- 

04,  308,  315. 
Titus,  Senator  Robert  C,  244- 

45- 
Truancy,   treatment    of,     230- 

31- 
Tuke,  William,  197. 
Turner,  Dr.  Wm.  Aldren,  343. 

University  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  318. 

Vail,  Charles  Delamater,  98. 
Van  Campen,  Major  Moses,  74- 

75,  loi. 
Villers  Colony  of  Insane,  186. 
"Voices  of  the  Glen,"   55-61, 

409-10. 

Warren,  Joseph,  39,  143. 

Warsaw,  N.  Y.:  soldiers'  and 
sailors'  monument,  252,  361. 

Western  House  of  Refuge,  224- 
25,  246-50. 

"White  Woman  of  the  Gene- 
see." See  Jemison,  Mary. 

Whitney,  Elias  J.,  297. 

Wichern,  Immanuel,  173-75, 
180,  193,  205,  210,  242. 

Wilber,Dr.H.P.,  114-15. 

Wildermuth,  Dr.,  345,  349. 

Willard  Asylum  for  the  Insane, 
263,  264,  276,  282,  287,  303. 


472 


INDEX 


Wine  banished  from  Mr.  L.'s 

table,  431-33. 
Wines,  Dr.  E.  C,  157,  211,  216- 

17- 
Wise,  Dr.  F.  N.,  283-8;,  300. 
Women  on  boards  of  managers, 

279-82. 
Women's  Educational  and  In- 


dustrial Union,  Buffalo,  282, 

319- 
Wright,  Mrs.  Asher,  94,  95,  100, 

104. 
Wyoming  Benevolent  Institute, 

364-70,  380-81,  389. 

Zurich,  institutions  at,  183. 


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